I'm topping up my oil ever 1,000 miles! Can't be normal?

[entropy]

Hi Guy's,

Just registered here on the forum - so hello!

Now to my question.

We have a 57 reg golf which I bought from a lease company as it was a former company car and it had 58k miles. When we bought the car it hadn't been serviced in 10 months but it was due one. So I drove it straight to the garage after I bought it. They said they did the service which was changing the filters and a inspection etc.

Approximately 1,200 miles later the check oil light came on so I didn't check it as I just took it straight to the dealer. The VW tech said they couldn't see any signs of an oil leak etc and he has topped up the oil and said to let them know if it does it again.

I was thinking that they probably never put enough oil in the 1st place. anyways, fast forward nearly 3 months and another 1,000 miles and its come on again. THis time I checked the oil and it was below the low line marker. I've now filled up the oil so its just on the max line and am going to monitor it every week.

I just wanted to double check how often you are putting in oil because 1,000 miles sounds excessive to me. We have no oil patches on our drive either so it doesn't seem to be leaking at all.

Thanks for ya help

[AlanD]

I hardly need to top it up at, I cant off the top of my head give you inbetween distances though. Having to top it back up from below the marker every 1000 miles is NOT normal.

[Wayne]

What engine is it.

Not normal but knowing which engine may help some more.

[entropy]

Hi Wayne,

It's just a standard 2.0 GTI with DSG - what other details would you need? It was on a long life service plan they said but whilst it's not doing the miles its now been changed to a shorter life service.

[FamilyDub]

While this is not 'normal', per se, it's within VW's tolerances - I'm sure i've read it on this forum - of a litre of oil per 1,000 kilometres, which tranlates as 621 miles. 

My car is T&D, looked after above and beyond what the service book says and mine goes no further than ~2000 miles for every litre of oil.

Any GTI should be on T&D servicing, so good call there.

[Ed30DSG]

I've never put any oil in mine (10k miles oil changes) - it hardly moves on the dipstick!

You will be out of warranty soon, so kick up a fuss!

[FamilyDub]

You will be out of warranty soon, so kick up a fuss!

Why? All VW will say is:-

...A litre of oil per 1,000 kilometres... is within tolerance.

[entropy]

One reason I bought the car was that it was 2.5 years old and thought I had 6 months warranty on it, when its actually 3 yrs or 60k miles whichever comes first. I'm over the 60 k miles so now out of warranty.

Family Dub - I also read that in the manual. I guess now its filled up with Oil I will check weekly to see how fast it's going down.

There are no leaks I can see under the bonnet and no marks at all on the drive.

[AlanD]

Sounds like you just have one of them engines. If its within the tolerances that VW set, which it is, then you just got to keep topping her up.

[Rhyso]

What sort of journeys do you do?

Short, start-stopping journeys can have a big effect on oil usage especially if the car never reaches operating temperatures