VW says burning oil is acceptable

I had a dealer tell me once that engines that burn a little oil last longer since oil is getting into the combustion chamber and other places and lubricating things better. On the other hand this might be bunk.

This disclaimer is in every owner's manual I've ever read. It is in mine (98 GLX), and in my wife's last 4 cars (Ford/Chrysler/Chevy). It's not just VW, they all do it.

IMO, it is a disclaimer to keep them from having to do anything about oil burning unless its is very, very bad.

Your brand new car is burning half a quart every 1000 miles? If we call it normal we don't have to fix it. Probably it is not a serious mechanical problem, but I have to say I wouldn't be too happy with the situation. rb

99Passat wrote:

Most manufacturers allow a lot of oil burning before they will fix it under warranty. It can be horrendously expensive to fix an oil burner depending on what's wrong, so they want to get out of it if they can.

1qt between oil changes is what I have seen specified as "acceptable", not sure what VW says.

You can do a leakdown test to try to narrow down where the burnt oil is coming through. If you leak air into the crankcase, it's the rings, if you don't, it's the valve stem seals. If VW won't cover your repairs, you will probably want to just live with bad rings, but stem seals might be worth replacing (not nearly as expensive as rings).

I suppose it could also be a head gasket but you would probably have other problems if that were the case.

It could be worse... at least you're not leaking oil onto your driveway.

My 95 VR6 motor used a quart every 2500 miles from when it was new to over

110K miles.

The valve oil seals usually go before the rings on most engines, foreign and domestic. Replace those first.

88VW Fox wagon 2.0 liter uses absolutely no oil between 5K oil changes. Almost 300K miles on it. Nothing internal done to the engine since buying it in 1994. Timing belt replaced once, coming up due for another replacement. Using original Mobil 1.

I had a 1979 VW Rabbit that had over 700,000 miles and never burned any oil. All you have to do is change the oil every 5,000 miles or so and do basic mantenance.

Way back I had a '77 Scirocco I bought new. After a while it started burning oil and for quite some time while I had it, it burned a quart of oil every few hundred miles. It was the valve seals and after a lengthy battle, consumer groups got VW to do a recall and they replaced the seals which helped a lot. The thing still burned some oil but *much* less. (no cat on that car BTW)

I loved that car though, metallic blue with a beautiful hand pinstripe job done by a pinstripe artist named "Poncho" who had lost an arm while surviving a many story fall in the elevator shaft of a Seattle skyscraper under construction. Traded that car in on my first GTI.

- Jim Klotz

Sloppy oil rings or sloppy engine block. Or both.

Small block Fords notoriously start around 100K miles for rings, oil seals at 50K, any gaskets @ 30K or more.

It seems that a quart every thousand miles is the norm for what manufacturers consider acceptable these days. It seems that it is the amount of oil the converter can eat without dying is the limit.

Old school thoughts do not count with the new oil ring seal they put in the in the vechicles that use the thin oil.

That's because you don't have the new oil ring seals for better mileage on thinner oils. Your vehicle needs 10W40 to 20W50 oil not 5W30 or thinner.

Agreed. I burned like a quart of 10W30 dino every 1,000 miles in my VW Fox. Switched to 10W40 synth and now it burns less than a quart every

3,000 miles.