oil Consumption on B8 S4

Hi guys

So my S4 has 110k now , got it at 100k . So for the past year i had no issues with oil , my next oil change is in 7000k according to the MMi. So around 3-4 weeks ago i was looking around in the car setup ( don't remember why) and i came across oil level , i looked at it and saw it was half way . Told myself no big deal lets see how it goes .

So last week i'm driving around and the low oil light comes on telling me i need a L. Ok fine i drop at audi and feed her 1 L. Today , so about a week and 300km later i look at the oil level and it's a bit below half . SO she drank 500ml in 300k .

Looking around the interwebs it seems audi changes the piston rings for something this excessive . I also saw there was a TSB for 2010-2012 S4's for PCV valve followed by a ecm update .

Vehicle: 2011 Audi S4
NHTSA ID Number: 10051502
Nature of Defect: ELECTRICAL SYSTEM: SOFTWARE
Bulletin Number: TSB-01-12-58
Bulletin Date: Nov 2012
SUMMARY: AUDI: WHILE DRIVING, MAINLY SHORT DISTANCE (STOP AND GO), HIGH CRANKCASE PRESSURE CAN LEAD TO DTCS P113700 AND P113900 CODES. CRANKCASE PRESSURE CAN BE LOWERED WITH NEW ECM (ENGINE CONTROL MODULE) SOFTWARE LEVEL AFTER CHANGING CRANKCASE PRESSURE VALVE TO IMPROVE AND ELIMINATE MENTIONED DTC CODES. MODELS 2010-2012 S4, S5, 2009-2011 A6 (C6), 2011-2012 Q7, 2012 A6, A7. *PE

Vehicle Make Model Model Year(s)
AUDI A6 2009-2012
AUDI A7 2012
AUDI C6 2009-2012
AUDI Q7 2011-2012
AUDI S4 2010-2012
AUDI S5 2010-2012

Reason i'm thinking about this TSB is because in the past 2 weeks i have been using my car a lot more than usual and been doing lots of stop and go.

The TSB also mentions fixing issues related so some DTCS codes .Does this mean if i don't have those codes this TSB does not apply to me ?

So i figured i would ask around the audi dealers see if they can inform me a bit more on that fix and who ever answered me at ddo is a french prick didn't care about what i was saying just wanted me to bring the car in to inspect , Lauzon was a chick and she kept talking to me about warranty which i don't care about i just wanna know about this tsb , she says it doesn't apply to my car, asked audi prestige and the rep there seemed to have found the TSB i was referring to and quote me around 1k for install of pcv and ecu flash. It's crazy i expected audi service to be nice and helpful but they seem stressed as fuck and very rude.

An answer i have not being able to find out is could i get the PCV installed myself and then simply ask audi to update the ECU ? what king of update is it , is it simply flashing my ecu to the latest firmware or is do they need to tune it to reduce the pressure in the crankcase .

If it's my piston rings that require to be changed , say i was to not fix it and simply add oil when i need to , is there any damage that can happen to the engine ?

Any help and information from you guys would be appreciated

1- Get a Catch Can system to cancel that shitty PCV system
2- Get a Stage 1 reflash by Unitronic or APR
3- Oil flush and put somes good real synthetic oil, with the VW502/505 certification

If there any oil consumption after that, look under for leaks or anything. You need thoses for your car, trust me. You got a V6T I suppose, or a V8?

yodergon said:

1- Get a Catch Can system to cancel that shitty PCV system
2- Get a Stage 1 reflash by Unitronic or APR
3- Oil flush and put somes good real synthetic oil, with the VW502/505 certification

If there any oil consumption after that, look under for leaks or anything. You need thoses for your car, trust me. You got a V6T I suppose, or a V8?

Click to expand...

It's a V6T

how does the APR flash help with oil consumption ?

I always service my car at strass so i'm assuming they put proper oil in there . I could simply buy my oil before hand and have them use that .

That reminds me of my old B7 S4 burning through a liter of oil every week. I though the V6T didn't have any oil consumption problems but it's still an Audi after all.

Personally I wouldn't do the oil changes at Audi's recommended intervals if the car is out of warranty. I think that it is way too much time and mileage for a high performance engine. I do mine on my 135i at 5000km like regular cars.

my new audi recommands 15 000km, i think i'll do them half way, one at spring, one at fall

Rob_SeR said:

my new audi recommands 15 000km, i think i'll do them half way, one at spring, one at fall

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The gf's A3 also requires it twice a year . Would not care really since its a lease and will be someone else's problem once its returned . Probably what the guy who bought my S4 said when he got it new lul .

my brother's bud own a 2010 s4 since 4 years. He doesn't know shit about cars, and he add oil only when the oil light come on.
He gives lift to my bro times to times, and by 3 times my bro saw this oil light.
Car still running fine. At the end, this look like a good engine even if it takes oil.

For the sources of oil consumption, I don't know, audizine will be your friend.

If I take exemple on the 2.0fsi, people who did their oil change every 8000km instead of 12000km, had less oil consumption problem. Which is my case.
Castrol edge @ 12000km on a performance engine, looks a bit too much.
Maybe ok if you drive like a grand ma, and shift below 3000rpm.

Thanks for all the useful info guys , i will start doing my oil changes more frequent . I'm bringing the car to the garage and will be checked for any leaks , if none are found i will get them to change the pcv under the supercharger and bring it to audi for a ecu reflash.

If that does not solve my problem then i'll stack on oil and top her off when she needs to .I'm not spending 6k on replacing the piston rings . Anyways i do 10k per year on normal times so i wont need to top her off that often .

Makes me think I'll never drive mine off warranty lol

Making your oil changes sooner than recommended wont solve your problem......trust me.

I got the same issue as you when I bought my 2011 Q5 (2.0 TFSI) at 99,000 kms..was burning 1L / 750-800 kms which was above Audi Standards.

I knew when I bought the car that the 2010 - 2012 model years were problematic for oil consumption so I bought a 2800$ extended warranty (PPP), good for an additional 100,000 kms/5 years.

2 weeks after I got the car, I brought it to Lauzon and they performed the engine fix (6500$ total). Don't need to tell you I was so happy I got the warranty...!!!

Your V6 s/c probably suffer the same problem. It runs strong and performs normally despite the oil consumption but, it's still annoying to add oil at such low intervals...I'm 99% sure that you need an engine rebuilt like mine...and it should cost fairly the same.

Find a good dealer that you trust and make arrangement with them. Audi Canada is aware of the problematic and can arrange to split the fees between you and them so it doesn't hurt too much...

Oh, and since i got the engine rebuilt (80,000 kms ago), it doesn't even drop 1/10 on the MMI meter after each recommended interval of 15,000 kms...!!!

yes it will. Many cases was because of metal filings. Buy a new audi and put a magnetic oil plug, you'll see.
My cousin rebuilt hundred of audi engines.

Then you have all the other side effects : piston rings, turbo journal bearing, piston chamber, etc)

Other : cover gasket leak, pcv valve defect

On old 2.0, metal to metal friction causes metal filings ( cam follower, turbo journal, connecting rod). The oil is dark black around 1000km, even a good brand such as liqui molly.
The same oil in a VQ35de, still dark/gold at 5000km.
I did not do lab test on oil properties at 12000km on a audi engine, but pretty sure it's worn hard.

Keeping the changes around 8000km will help.

je vois quand même pas pourquoi le constructeur recommanderait un changement d'huile au 15 000km sur un char neuf sous garantie si c'est pas safe...!

Rob_SeR said:

je vois quand même pas pourquoi le constructeur recommanderait un changement d'huile au 15 000km sur un char neuf sous garantie si c'est pas safe...!

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Parce que le QC est fait selon audi.

les audi neuf à mes parents, c'est le premier changement au 1000km avec le drain plug aimanté. Et après le 8000km, le drain plus est pas clean. les chars sont neuf.

essai toi sur ta rs. Quoi que ca doit être pré-roader des RS, pas comme les char 2.0t de pauvre :bigup:

je vais voir ce que le manuel de propriétaire recommande

De toute facon, je vais toujours faire un changement d'huile au printemps, je préfère commencer la saison de lapping avec de l'huile fraiche plutot que l'huile qui a vécue les large écarts de température de l'hiver.

QUICKSILVER 1.8T said:

Making your oil changes sooner than recommended wont solve your problem......trust me.

I got the same issue as you when I bought my 2011 Q5 (2.0 TFSI) at 99,000 kms..was burning 1L / 750-800 kms which was above Audi Standards.

I knew when I bought the car that the 2010 - 2012 model years were problematic for oil consumption so I bought a 2800$ extended warranty (PPP), good for an additional 100,000 kms/5 years.

2 weeks after I got the car, I brought it to Lauzon and they performed the engine fix (6500$ total). Don't need to tell you I was so happy I got the warranty...!!!

Your V6 s/c probably suffer the same problem. It runs strong and performs normally despite the oil consumption but, it's still annoying to add oil at such low intervals...I'm 99% sure that you need an engine rebuilt like mine...and it should cost fairly the same.

Find a good dealer that you trust and make arrangement with them. Audi Canada is aware of the problematic and can arrange to split the fees between you and them so it doesn't hurt too much...

Oh, and since i got the engine rebuilt (80,000 kms ago), it doesn't even drop 1/10 on the MMI meter after each recommended interval of 15,000 kms...!!!

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I'm not saying what you're saying is crap, just trying to understand here: somehow, the dealership's rebuild gave a better quality engine that the factory Audi build. Interesting!

Or the previous owner of your car did beat the crap out of it.

windex said:

I'm not saying what you're saying is crap, just trying to understand here: somehow, the dealership's rebuild gave a better quality engine that the factory Audi build. Interesting!

Or the previous owner of your car did beat the crap out of it.

Click to expand...

Yes, they rebuilt the engine with the "RIGHT" piston and rings (roughly 1200$ just for the 4 pistons pre-assembled with the rings), latest specifications and/or better manufacturing quality...

In fact, Audi admitted (un-officially) that the 2010 (and some 2009) to 2012+ MY with the 2.0TFSI engines may suffer from excessive oil consumption due to a bad assembly and specification of piston rings at the assembly plants. Despite the fact it has absolutely no effect on the performances (hence why they didn't take pro-active actions to correct the problem), they deal with the problem one customer at a time. Apparently, it has a "negligible" effect on the brand's reputation while keeping the service department steadily busy....!!!

Also, it (can) be big money for them if customers (like me) are out of OEM warranty period and they bring a car for this repair in....$$$

It's never as bad as the "same" Subaru problem (that may lead in engine failure) but still annoying for a car that is in the luxury segment...!!

One thing for sure, after the repair, the engine burns almost no oil at all after 15,000 kms. I did 5 oil changes since the rebuild and everytime, the MMI oil level is down by 1 or max 2 notches (equivalent to approx. 100 or 200mL).

Rob_SeR said:

je vais voir ce que le manuel de propriétaire recommande

De toute facon, je vais toujours faire un changement d'huile au printemps, je préfère commencer la saison de lapping avec de l'huile fraiche plutot que l'huile qui a vécue les large écarts de température de l'hiver.

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c'est des choses qu'on apprend quand on est rendu au 100e rebuilt de moteur audi. Ca fait que 6 ans que mon cousin travail chez audi. Il travail à temps partiel chez zilla aussi. Yen a vu.

gosse pas, dump ton huile dans les premier 1000km

windex said:

I'm not saying what you're saying is crap, just trying to understand here: somehow, the dealership's rebuild gave a better quality engine that the factory Audi build. Interesting!

Or the previous owner of your car did beat the crap out of it.

Click to expand...

Ouais, sur les 2.0t ils peuvent mettre les têtes révisés, la cam 2 pièces révisés, la diverter révisé, les ring de pistons révisés.

je vais jamais conduire l'auto hors garantie, tant que je vais l'avoir je vais avoir une garantie valide, donc s'il y a un problème, c'est audi qui va s'en occuper

et pourquoi ? vente avant la perte de valeur ?

je pose la question, car je suis du type a acheté de quoi de récent, et de l'usé à corde, tout en mettant plein de mods.

Une question qu'un char c'est déjà une pas pire dépense, des mod c'est un gaspillage, aussi bien en profiter d'un char le fun et arrêter de motiver la fabrication de nouvelles voitures.

oVeRdOsE said:

et pourquoi ? vente avant la perte de valeur ?

je pose la question, car je suis du type a acheté de quoi de récent, et de l'usé à corde, tout en mettant plein de mods.

Une question qu'un char c'est déjà une pas pire dépense, des mod c'est un gaspillage, aussi bien en profiter d'un char le fun et arrêter de motiver la fabrication de nouvelles voitures.

Click to expand...

Quand on parle d'auto, j'essaie que mes décisions soit assez rationnelles, mais des fois ca arrive que c'est pas le cas, la réalité, c'est que j'aime changer et essayer des nouvelles bagnoles.

Ceci étant dit, mon commentaire voulait surtout dire que si j'adore la voiture, que j'ai les moyens de la garder et que je veux la garder plus longtemps, je vais prendre une garantie prolongée aussi longtemps que possible (8ans / 160 000km).

Pour moi le plaisir de l'automobile, c'est d'essayer plein de types de voiture différentes, donc soit que j'ai beaucoup de moyens pour avoir plusieurs voitures en même temps, soit que je vends ce que j'ai pour essayer d'autre chose.

J'ai mon permis de conduire depuis 8 ans et en 8 ans, j'ai eu 8 auto différentes, de tous les genre, sport et modifiées autant que daily ou beater.