Burning about 1 quart every 500 miles

[NewGuy1]

Not following you. The diaphram is effectively the PCV and replacing the PCV will fix any issue caused by the PCV. If you're talking about another issue causing the PCV to not work properly that is not a PCV issue. That is a PCV symptom. Example, PCV not operating properly because of a vacuum leak. That is not a PCV issue that is a vacuum issue where the symptom is a PCV not functioning correctly. In the case of oil cosumption it would likey be an issue with the PCV diaphram itself as they ofter tear and oil consumption would definitely be a problem at that point as the PCV would not close at idle (max vacuum) and you'd be sucking in crankcase vapor like crazy. Also a diaphram failure would cause you to suck copious amounts of oil durring any spirited driving. It is possible that there is a slight vacuum leak causing the PCV to not fully close but with still enough vacuum to suck oil. In this case however there would likely be a code thrown whereas a torn diaphram would not throw any codes until a sensor got oily from it or something. If there was an issue not allowing the PCV to open at all then you would likely start blowing seals as the crankcase vapor has nowhere to go. Then you would also start losing oil as well but it would be showing up on your garage floor.

Not saying replacing the PCV will fix the issue but for $15 it's a start and given the issue the diaphragm is a strong candidate for the culprit.

Chill my dude.
The PCV (the unit itself as a whole) fails in a variety of ways.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQEciqR1ST8
A diaphragm only replaces one potentially problematic part.
Not saying its not a good attempt to fix for $15 buck, or that your wrong, just that its not a one all solution to failed PCV (again the unit as a whole).
With oil consumption being the main issue I agree that its likely the diaphragm but if he has an older PCV fixing that one part does not make the entire unit up to snuff and could just result in failing again.

 

[zrickety]

When I mentioned the turbo, I was thinking internally. There are bearings and seals in there that can go bad. It will effectively shoot oil into the intake and you'll burn it up. Rings are possible, but I would think less likely. A compression test/leak down test would rule that out. Find a good shop.

 

[reedsposer22]

TLDR in title.



Bought this 2012 Mk6 GTI in early March this year. I've since had to top up with about 8-10 quarts of oil total, in 5000 miles. I have changed the oil myself once, probably about 2000 miles ago.


I also had mechanic change the oil once, two weeks/500 miles ago. Dipstick reading is near minimum (bottom of hash marks) now.


I haven't been able to see leaks, nor have I smelled burnt oil or anything. The car runs well, although I wouldn't be surprised if whatever is causing the oil consumption has been decreasing the performance of the car since before I bought it, because the car might be less responsive/accelerates slower than I imagined.



All I know is that there was quite a bit of oil crusted along the front of the engine before I bought it. I have replaced cam position sensor so I don't think it was the o-ring on it leaking.


Any ideas what it could be?

This is my issue too. 1-1.5 quarts every 1,000 miles or so. It seems excessive. No leaks either. My car has 124k

 

[reedsposer22]

I was going through a quart every 200 miles. I'm fairly certain my rings were gone. At 150k I just decided to put a rebuilt block in it. That fixed it, lol
Before buying new stuff see if there are ways to test a part before throwing money at it. There is a way to check the pcv without taking it off. I had also replaced my turbo as that could have been the culprit, but was really just a way to get wife to say yes to ko4.

What rings did you repair? I think I may need done as well. Please help.

 

[damagi123]

same. burning a quart every 500 miles. Only Ive got visible black smoke on WOT. An independent mechanic and the dealer both think its rings and at this point Ive been driving it like that long enough that the block will need machined so Im wondering if I should just do a second hand engine.

 

[GolferGTI12]

same. burning a quart every 500 miles. Only Ive got visible black smoke on WOT. An independent mechanic and the dealer both think its rings and at this point Ive been driving it like that long enough that the block will need machined so Im wondering if I should just do a second hand engine.

I'm having literally the same problem, but I was having white/blueish smoke on takeoffs as well as the black smoke on wot. Independent shop pulled the spark plugs and found oil so he thinks my rings are bad. I have no idea what to do

Sent from my SM-G930P using Tapatalk

 

[sterkrazzy]

Time to trade it in!

 

[torga]

Time to trade it in!

Or spend some on a head job and save a car payment?
In 2012, my Celica was burning oil badly, started fouling plugs. Stem seals and rings were toast. I spent $2500 to have the engine rebuilt/installed and it's still running strong today (I'm about to sell it). If we break it down to a monthly payment, that's about $30/mo over the last 7 years.
The only major maintenance I've had to do since then was new engine mounts (they were OEM from '95) and replacing the distributor. Healthy engines give few problems.

 

[1ashchuckton]

If one does just the head, new valves that seal with new valve seals & the bottom end doesn't get done it will use even more oil. The tightened up top end will force more oil past the rings.

Guess the thing to do is do a wet compression test to see if the rings are bad. If lucky it is just the head.

I'm not one to trade a car if it has problems, I'd fix it.

 

[Wascally Wabbit1]

Rebuilding the engine on a GTI is going to be pretty expensive. A rebuilt long block from ECS is almost $6000. Best bet would be to buy a low mileage used long block and swap it in. Even that would run a few thousand all said and done but if the rest of the car is solid it would be worth it.

Crappy thing about trading it in is they will give you very little for it then they'll sell it to another used car place or auction it. Then it will end up on a lot with a bottle of no smoke in the engine for $10,000 so the next guy gets screwed. How do I know? Bought a pickup from a Mazda dealer. It burned 1 quart per 100 miles. Lemon laws only apply to new cars. Luckily I sourced a used motor for $1000 and swapped it in myself. Truck was great for several years after that.

 

[torga]

I have no idea how much it'd cost a machine shop to do the re-honing/re-planing and a local indie shop to do the rebuild, but it'll certainly be cheaper than what ECS charges. Pre-rebuilts are for people with no time. If OP has time, I'd highly recommend going the route I listed above. My second choice would be a low mileage used long block.

 

[Wascally Wabbit1]

I have no idea how much it'd cost a machine shop to do the re-honing/re-planing and a local indie shop to do the rebuild, but it'll certainly be cheaper than what ECS charges. Pre-rebuilts are for people with no time. If OP has time, I'd highly recommend going the route I listed above. My second choice would be a low mileage used long block.

Read the following in a mellow tone. Everyone always thinks these replies are heated for some reason. It's not. Just stating my experience.

Most of the time pre-builts are cheaper because they're provided by a shop doing all the work in-house and that's all they do so they can do it much cheaper. A local shop will likely send the long block out for rebuild. I know very few indie shops that could take that on themselves, or that I would want to.

To have the current engine work done at a machine shop will be thousands not hundreds of dollars.

I have replaced several engines over the years and I am rebuilding a motor for my jeep right now and a long block assembled is about $1000 cheaper than having the machine work done myself on my current engine. Every shop I talked to said they'd send it out. There is no way in hell I am paying a shop $125 an hour to play middle man. I'll just pull the motor myself. It's not that hard. Luckily the guy who welded my Golf transmission just happened to have a rebuilt long block for my Jeep that someone brought in to weld up and never came back for. He's a friend so he gave it to me for the cost of the the work he did at a discount, so I got a fresh rebuilt long block for $1500. I was looking at $4k to send it out myself. We pulled the head and oil pan and sure enough it's all new internals. Never been fired.

ECS is just sourcing these somewhere. They're not putting them together themselves. When my turbo went on my TDI it was $4000 alone at an indi shop. Google GTI engine rebuild. It's an $8K to $10k job. Swapping in a used long block is the only economical way to do it.

 

[torga]

I guess that's why anecdotal experiences have to be taken with a grain of salt, because with my Toyota engine my experience was the exact opposite of this. All the prebuilts were ridiculously and prohibitively expensive. The cheapest way was to have a machine shop do the work. At the time, I wasn't as mechanically inclined and was severely strapped for time, so I had an indie shop pull the engine and reinstall once the machining was done. I took the engine to the machine shop myself once they ripped it out.
It cost $1000 to machine the block/head and resurface my flywheel. It cost another $1500 for the indie shop to pull/install the engine, including me buying a new clutch and radiator for them to install.
I could've bought a used long block for less money, sure. But I wanted to know what I was getting and a full rebuild made me happy knowing that I could take care of this engine the right way from square one.

 

[Wascally Wabbit1]

Agreed. I think it depends on where you live as well and the car. Very few shops here in Southern California would let you do what you did so that is probably a huge factor. I really lucked out on my Jeep and my 2.5L. I was just looking into replacing the tranny on my 2.5L and even that was going to be a couple grand here to swap in a used one all said and done. So I went with the welding and from that stumbled upon a Jeep motor. That's just crazy lucky so I spent $2250 for what was going to cost me like $7000 all said and done.

https://imgur.com/a/75QixQp

 

[riceburner]

Its wierd. Mine was burning a fair amount of oil (found a nearly dry dipstick one day after maybe 1-2000 miles?), then ive just been slowly topping it off once every few weeks and its mostly fine. Zero external leaks, the engine is squeaky clean, but i smell oil when the windows are down. Suspecting the turbo is eating some oil. I replaced the pcv entire assembly a few months ago - of course now i forget if that was before or AFTER i noticed how low i was on oil lol - how could i diagnose the turbo is eating oil? Wouldnt my intercooler be, like, full of oil by now? Haha.

My car runs 100% fine and strong. Just odd. Suppose as others have mentioned maybe the rings are going out... 74000 miles, been a k04 car since 30 or so. :iono: