2011 Fabia vrs oil consumption

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The wife has a petrol vrs and generally has been very happy with it, in the last 3 years or so she's had it.

It's always needed the occasional engine oil top up - about 200ml a month at a guess. We researched this issue and it seems it's a known problem in some earlier engines, down to bad pistons.
The consensus is that if you keep an eye on the oil it shouldn't cause trouble.
The car was outside of warranty and technically there was no fault that needed fixing so we lived with it.

In the last 3 weeks the car's been asking for a lot more oil, something like 500ml a week!!!

Obviously this is excessive. I can't see a leak, nor much smoke. Performance wise it also seems ok, engine feels punchy and will go like a rocket if needed.

I booked the car to be looked at tomorrow by skoda, and I'm dreading what they might say. I suspect it could mean over £1000 to sort pistons out, and although better than a £3000 engine repair, I do wonder if skoda have some responsibility here?

As I mentioned this problem (if it is, in fact, the same problem) is a known fault with this series of engines.
In the past how have manufacturers dealt with this sort of matter?

I'm jumping the gun a bit here - need to hear what they say, but none the less I'd like to know what I can reasonably expect from skoda...
 
Im not sure if this will ease your mind or if its even relevant but my BMW 116i takes a litre every 3000 miles or so and there is absolutely nothing wrong with it.
 
How much mileage are we talking about each week?

It's not uncommon for petrol VAG engines (many older ones) to use a bit of oil.

Audi state that 1L of oil every 1300 miles is normal (if you believe that) in regards to the 1.8 v5 Turbo Engine found in a lot of VAG cars, for example.
 
About 1000 a month.
I guess it's the fact that we're going from 200ml a month to what seems like 2L a month.

This sudden change feels like impending doom
 
My car's a 335i and it needs no top ups between oil services...

N54 or N55?

First time I've heard of either engine not needing oil to be topped up between services. I was always led to believe both the N54 and N55 get through quite a bit of oil by design.
 
If its a CAVE 1.4tsi then they are a ticking time bomb. I owned an Ibiza Cupra with the CAVE engine and I was lucky nothing major went pop and oil consumption was reasonable. I did find the engine absolutely hated short trips, took it to Cornwall and back and used nothing, my daily commute needed 250ml every month. There is a recall for the oil breather pipe which is meant to help.

If you want to scare your self read this :D: http://seatcupra.net/forums/showthread.php?t=407682
 
If its a CAVE 1.4tsi then they are a ticking time bomb. I owned an Ibiza Cupra with the CAVE engine and I was lucky nothing major went pop and oil consumption was reasonable. I did find the engine absolutely hated short trips, took it to Cornwall and back and used nothing, my daily commute needed 250ml every month. There is a recall for the oil breather pipe which is meant to help.

If you want to scare your self read this :D: http://seatcupra.net/forums/showthread.php?t=407682


Very scary
Thanks for that link
 
I think the reason for it is poor seals, but manufacturers or dealers don't want to deal with it.

VAG engines are known for it. Some are pretty bad.
 
If you have full skoda service history they might be nice and offer a contribution, otherwise you're probably out of luck. That seemed to be the general story with the 2.0 tfsi engines consuming hilarious amounts of oil.
 
Audi state that 1L of oil every 1300 miles is normal (if you believe that) in regards to the 1.8 v5 Turbo Engine found in a lot of VAG cars, for example.

Manufacturers definitions of "Normal" in these cases are based primarily on minimising warranty work, not on the actual health of the engine. The combination of low tension piston rings (lower friction for economy/emissions purposes), owners running the engine in far too gently coupled with the protection provided by high performance fully synthetic oils lead to bore glazing and high oil consumption.
 
Manufacturers definitions of "Normal" in these cases are based primarily on minimising warranty work, not on the actual health of the engine. The combination of low tension piston rings (lower friction for economy/emissions purposes), owners running the engine in far too gently coupled with the protection provided by high performance fully synthetic oils lead to bore glazing and high oil consumption.

Most dealers will not consider oil consumption to be a "Problem" unless you are using more than 1L/250 miles.

Oh, and PS

I am of an age when I can remember when it actually was perfectly normal to top up oil weekly or put a can in every time one filled up.

Cars of the 60's/70's must have run basically on what to day would be regarded pretty much as a 2 stroke mix!:p
 
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I got rid of my 2011 fabia vrs last year for exactly same reason.

Had the engine replaced by Skoda under warranty . Around 20k miles later , engine stars burning oil, over 1l per 1000 miles and warranty got expired. Skoda simply don't want to know.

Sold it at the end. I dont regret.

Before they replaced the engine, I had to visit Skoda at least 5 times, oil consumption test, new jet squirts fitted, new oil breather pipe etc. And none worked and I started to moan at them.they finally agreed to fit in a new engine.

Get rid of it GET RID!
 
Update...

The dealer workshop says, yes it's the dreaded piston / seal wear problem, no surprise there.
We used to get the car serviced there but we moved address and we used a different skoda dealer once, and then they closed the dealership, and had one service at an independent garage.

On the basis that we haven't got a "full skoda history" they are not playing ball, saying we have to pay the full amount for the repair.

That seems a bit unfair - up until now no workshop, skoda or otherwise, would recommend stripping and rebuilding the engine for the small oil usage it was exhibiting.
The problem manifested in the last few days / weeks, and essentially was a result of a manufacturing defect seen across the VAG group with these engines.

We're going to see the workshop manager in an hour - to see what can be done.
Any last words of wisdom on these points??

1. Is there a precedent with this sort of problem? ie if they refuse to play ball can we actually do anything about it? or is it tough luck?
2. If we need to pay for the repairs is it worth getting an independent garage to do it? would be cheaper I suppose
3. Can the car be driven for essential journeys? (mindful of RPMs and oil levels...)

cheers
:cool:
 
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