I think my oil consumption has increased recently. It took 1.5L in about 2500 miles where as before it was only drinking about 1-1.5L in 5000 miles. The only time my car smokes is high rpm and its black smoke. What are some things I can check? I’m having a carbon clean done this week so anything I can tell them to do while the IM is off would be helpful.
every rs4 motor is different… some burn a lot some don’t. I’m currently like 1 quart every 300-500 miles of mobil 1 0w-40, i also have 152k beaten to shit miles… but also i may have another problem because after idling after 5 mins and then rev to 3k in neutral, i get a lot of white smoke(coolant) so i must have a small leak somewhere then thinning out my oil. not sure what the issue is, waiting to do a oil sample to see if there is antifreeze present.
White smoke sounds scary. If I end up having to live with higher levels of consumption I will probably switch to the mobil 1 0w-40 since it can be gotten for cheap and locally.
lmao yup… slowly waiting to hear from jhm about built motor program and what it entitles… otherwise this motor has been bulit proof since i got her at 50k miles, almost 5 years ago in September…
All the aluminum motors eat oil. The new b8 S4 seems to eat about 1 quart every 3 to 5 k depending on car and miles.
The biggest thing to look into is weather. In the hotter months change the oil to a thicker base it will greatly cut down on consumption and in the winter thin back out.
As for white smoke check the oil coolant block on the front of the motor. They can fracture and you can get contamination.
Hmm. Oil coolant block… What is this you speak of. Anymore details or pics you can add in?
Tony, white smoke can be a sign of too much crankcase pressure. Based on your consumption, I bet that’s it. You probably have a variety of small oil leaks as well (lower dipstick seal, valve covers, perhaps a tinge of oil in your coolant reservoir?) Our oil separator(PCV) is pretty restrictive, start there.
FYI, I use ~1qt every 5000miles.
what about PCV issues? Could that be a cause?
Of a lot more things than people realize:
-oil leaks
-burning oil at stoplights
-white smoke at acceleration
-oil seepage in your coolant
-carbon build-up (in my lowly opinion)
Thanks for the info koolade9. Am I just looking for a clogged PCV when I inspect it?
I’m sure the service manual would tell you to replace it. On my first one, I had the inlet piston sticking quite often. I cleaned it out with fuel & (light) compressed air. I bought a new one 10k miles or so ago for peace of mind and there wasn’t an observable difference between the cleaned one and the new one (just fyi).
Hey. Valve covers are good, dipstick seal I’ll check my next change, my coolant reservoir has a some black deposits in it… And I only replaced the coolant tank once a year due to fading(yellowing) so you think too much crankcase pressure pushes oil into the coolant system somehow?
For some reason I can’t edit my last post. But koolade you realize I am at 152k miles right? Not sure what yours is.
So the shop doing the carbon clean found that my valve covers were seeping oil, had them replace the vc gaskets and pcv valve. I will report back with oil consumption after 1k miles.
On a side note, those knuckleheads decided it was necessary to remove the headers in order to replace my motor mounts. They must not have realized they can just remove the motor mount brackets. Not sure what to think about that, as they are a very reputable shop and have done great work on my car otherwise.
I’m at 92k…Keep in mind, once you start getting more and more blow-by, your crankcase pressure will get higher and higher…combine that with a failing PCV (choke-point). You’ve got to evacuate that or all the aforementioned problems will surface. Also, just venting to atmosphere is not enough.
A. Did they replace your driver’s side valve cover with the updated style?
B. I call BS on them removing your headers, as they’d have to pull the motor…I feel as though there’d be a slight price discrepancy…
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What I found was the seals at the coolant pass-through pipes at the back of the motor will seep under pressure, pushing oil from the timing case past the seal, into the coolant…you’ll start to see traces of oil in the coolant reservoir. For those not looking to replace the seals (i.e. pull the motor), reducing crankcase pressure will at least slow it down…
As for the yellowing reservoir, I feel like everyone should be replacing that every couple years. At least they’re cheap…
They actually got the revised vc gasket and cut it to fit the old vc. I’m slightly nervous about this, but I trust that they wouldn’t give a customer a vc gasket that’s going to fail.
The sales guy actually said the tech had to unbolt the headers in the email now that I read it again. It’s either complete BS and the tech doesn’t know or the sales guy is trying to justify the 3.6 hr book rate for motor mount r&r.
[quote=“komseh,post:17,topic:7547”]
Having the new gasket alone will certainly help, and even the re-design itself is probably more of an oversight they fixed vs. a significant improvement/difference. IMO, neither design should really leak if the PCV system is functioning properly.
Okay, that makes more sense…sales guy doesn’t know what’s involved and made up the header story. 3.6hr is a long time, but keep in mind that book time will include a few extra steps…
Wonder if they mean the downpipes and not the short tri-y headers.
Lots of people call downpipes headers.
They shouldn’t have been anywhere near the header or downpipes.