Brother's Sportwagon, oil falling into a black hole!

[PerceivedShift]

Little brother has a 2016 Sportwagon with 106k miles, purchased used with 90-something k miles. Runs strong, doesn't seem to be burning any oil out the exhaust and no leaks. But for some reason it's losing oil. Yesterday I changed his oil and I measured only about 3.5qts in the drain pan. His PCV could probably be swapped soon as I doubt its been replaced, but I did confirm at idle its pulling a vacuum. I gave it the beans a few times to see if I could get it to spit out any oil from the tailpipe. Absolutely nothing, even when cold. (Not something I normally do, but I wanted to see if anything came out worst-case) I'm stumped, he's going to check the dipstick regularly now and log it. Where the heck is this oil going? Any ideas?

 

[1ashchuckton]

Not an expert, but if it's losing oil it is one of two things. It is leaking oil or it is burning oil. I'd guess it is burning oil. Your brother needs to be checking his oil at least once a week and adding when needed.

As far as your measurement goes, did you account for what was in the oil filter? I'm guessing that would put you closer to 4 quarts. How many miles on the oil that was drained?

 

[PerceivedShift]

Not an expert, but if it's losing oil it is one of two things. It is leaking oil or it is burning oil. I'd guess it is burning oil. Your brother needs to be checking his oil at least once a week and adding when needed.

As far as your measurement goes, did you account for what was in the oil filter? I'm guessing that would put you closer to 4 quarts. How many miles on the oil that was drained?

I would expect multiple quarts of oil loss after 6k miles would show at least an occasional smoke cloud. Oil filter housing rarely contains much oil in these cars.

It must be burning oil very slowly, to the point I can't see it from the mirrors. Next time I might record the tail pipe under acceleration.

 

[MeltedSolid]

Obviously very different car, but one of my friends had an oil leak on his Miata he recently bought that was dripping directly onto the exhaust manifold. He assumed it wasn't loosing oil because the engine bay was clean and no smoke out the exhaust, but it lost a few liters over ~2k miles and spun a bearing after oil starving in a turn. Definitely worthwhile to get to the bottom of it.

 

[PerceivedShift]

Obviously very different car, but one of my friends had an oil leak on his Miata he recently bought that was dripping directly onto the exhaust manifold. He assumed it wasn't loosing oil because the engine bay was clean and no smoke out the exhaust, but it lost a few liters over ~2k miles and spun a bearing after oil starving in a turn. Definitely worthwhile to get to the bottom of it.

Yea, I told him I'd like to pull the drain pan and get a good look. Could even be a bad turbo seal. Though I'd think in both cases I'd smell some burning oil, the other day after I made the pulls I popped the hood and didn't smell any oil what so ever.

 

[tigeo]

What oil is he using? Pull the intake hose check TIP?

 

[PerceivedShift]

What oil is he using? Pull the intake hose check TIP?

Liqui Moly 5w-40, he's on his second oil kit purchase on FCP. Yea, pulling the TIP is a good easy check, will do.

 

[tigeo]

Liqui Moly 5w-40, he's on his second oil kit purchase on FCP. Yea, pulling the TIP is a good easy check, will do.

Ok so not oil viscosity related then.

 

[StorableComa]

What's the coolant look like? Oil cooler seals go and leak oil into the coolant. Normally won't see coolant in the oil with that leak, just oil in or discolored coolant.

 

[Cemetery]

New emissions equipment is pretty darn impressive. You may not see smoke and still sending oil past the rings (this was the case on my B8 A4).

Leak down test may be able to tell you something, but if it due to carbon buildup between the oil control rings, the leak down numbers would be unaffected.

Might as well throw a PCV on since its cheap. If that doesn't change things, look into Kreen/BG Cleaners. Kreen helped a little on my A4, but I ended up selling it as I wasn't keen on doing rings on a cheap car.

 

[OldVWFan]

Little brother has a 2016 Sportwagon with 106k miles, purchased used with 90-something k miles. Runs strong, doesn't seem to be burning any oil out the exhaust and no leaks. But for some reason it's losing oil. Yesterday I changed his oil and I measured only about 3.5qts in the drain pan. His PCV could probably be swapped soon as I doubt its been replaced, but I did confirm at idle its pulling a vacuum. I gave it the beans a few times to see if I could get it to spit out any oil from the tailpipe. Absolutely nothing, even when cold. (Not something I normally do, but I wanted to see if anything came out worst-case) I'm stumped, he's going to check the dipstick regularly now and log it. Where the heck is this oil going? Any ideas?

Liqui Moly 5w-40, he's on his second oil kit purchase on FCP. Yea, pulling the TIP is a good easy check, will do.

Above you say he purchased the car with 90k+ miles and he currently has 106k miles, so he has driven it less than 16k, then you state he is on his second oil change, so when did he do the first change, right after the purchase? At what mileage? When did he do the second oil change, at what mileage? Just thinking that some loss may be normal if change mileage is large. Is he sure that it was at the correct maximum level after each change when warm?

 

[PerceivedShift]

Above you say he purchased the car with 90k+ miles and he currently has 106k miles, so he has driven it less than 16k, then you state he is on his second oil change, so when did he do the first change, right after the purchase? At what mileage? When did he do the second oil change, at what mileage? Just thinking that some loss may be normal if change mileage is large. Is he sure that it was at the correct maximum level after each change when warm?

We changed the oil the first week of ownership. I think he has gone 6-8k between oil changes and it sounds like he's added oil between changes as well.

 

[DerHase]

Vacuum at idle is only one way the PCV can fail (torn diaphragm allowing atmosphere pressure to be sucked in instead of crankcase gasses). That is really the only thing this checks.

You can start with a leakdown test to check piston rings.

If that checks out fine, my guess is it's either the PCV (failure of one of the check valves that will only be occur during transient conditions or WOT) or valve stem seals. Both can have varying levels of failure. Anything from barely perceptible to pouring out the exhaust.


Is the car tuned or have any aftermarket parts on it?

 

[PerceivedShift]

Vacuum at idle is only one way the PCV can fail (torn diaphragm allowing atmosphere pressure to be sucked in instead of crankcase gasses). That is really the only thing this checks.

You can start with a leakdown test to check piston rings.

If that checks out fine, my guess is it's either the PCV (failure of one of the check valves that will only be occur during transient conditions or WOT) or valve stem seals. Both can have varying levels of failure. Anything from barely perceptible to pouring out the exhaust.


Is the car tuned or have any aftermarket parts on it?

Good point on the PCV, good to have the MK7 PCV expert here now!

Todos:

1. Compression
2. Leakdown
3. Check TIP
4. Replace PCV
5. Send oil in for analysis

I've done 1 & 2 on my Integra recently which was burning oil, turned out it was the tune. So I re-tuned it! Doesn't hardly burn any oil now, I was going to pull the head and replace valve seals this year...making that far future project now. Hopefully his VW doesn't have bad valve seals, not a fun project on these cars. As far as I know it wasn't tuned, unfortunately I don't think Obdeleven can check the TD1 flag. 1.8ts are not tuned nearly as often as 2.0ts, so I'd say the chance is small...but there still is a chance. Added another todo, send the oil in for analysis.

 

[riceburner]

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