THE B8 A4 Oil Consumption Thread

[egebhardt]

2015 with just under 100k. Burning quart every 4-500 miles. Did a b12 piston soak and car has lost no oil in 200 miles of driving. Oil level has been closely monitored by VCDS and physical dipstick
]

This is a B8 EA888 issue. I think you have an earlier engine with less oil burning. I could be wrong.

[a4lownslow]

This is a B8 EA888 issue. I think you have an earlier engine with less oil burning. I could be wrong.

You’re wrong.. 9-16 us models suffer from excessive oil consumption.


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[maRS5]

I think LATER engines are less susceptible to clogged piston rings which leads to oil consumption (unless terribly maintained or just bad luck?). The 2016 allroad 2.0T recently used up a bit of oil (1/4 down from max on the MMI). It was topped off and again used up a bit fairly quickly (went down just 1/4 from max on the MMI just like before) but it didn't used any more than that which was odd. Took a look at it and there was light weeping around the gasket on the upper timing chain cover (bottom front of the cover was lightly coated in oil and dust/dirt)

Using Nepali_Man's excellent thread as a guide, changed out the two gaskets and the magnetic variator's o-ring along with a oil and filter change and the allroad hasn't used a drop of oil since.

https://www.audizine.com/forum/showt...oil-leak-FIXED

In retrospect, I honestly think the cover just needed retorquing as a couple of the bolts felt looser than expected when I was removing the cover. Plus I took a good look at the original gaskets and there was nothing visibly wrong with them and they were still pliable but since I already had the replacement gaskets, I changed them all out anyways and then properly torqued the bolts to spec in the correct sequence.

UPDATE: 2000 miles later, zero drop in oil level via the MMI and dipstick. Typo correction.

[Etphan]

I did the Berryman B-12 piston soak on my 2013 A4 2.0T CPMA (117k miles) after having oil consumption issues. I was adding a quart every 400-500 miles for probably close to a year, maybe at the 100k mile mark I can’t remember. I had tried the BG EPR flush and it seemed to help at first but not after the first 2000 miles.
After the B-12 soak, I ran the engine for 15 minutes at around 2000 rpms and did oil change and new filter and spark plugs. Filled the engine to max oil according to MMI and ran the engine for a bit. Had to add a little more.
Been keeping an eye on the oil level just with the MMI for the past 5600 miles and after the first 200 miles, saw a drop to about 85% of the MMI bar (had me a little concerned to see it drop so soon).
After 900 miles, 75%.
1300 miles, 60%.
Now at 5600 miles, 40%.
So all in all, I think the B-12 soak really helped and I will be performing an oil change soon to see how it holds up afterwards.


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[maRS5]

I did the Berryman B-12 piston soak...

Seems like some folks had better results after a 2nd or 3rd soak. Have you though about doing another soak?

[stos214]

Hi
I recently bought a 2013 a4 at around 95k miles. When I bought it I saw the oil level was just under halfway so I decided to get an oil change since I just got the car. Then around 600 miles I got a light saying I needed 1 quart and now it’s prolly been around 250 miles since I added the quart and the oil level gauge in the mmi says it’s right above halfway.

After looking online at other oil consumption post I honestly don’t know if I’m also affected with it or am I overreacting would this also be a sign of oil consumption or am I reading the digital dipstick wrong lol?

[maRS5]

@stos214 - First thing I'd do is check for any oil leaks around the usual suspects (valve cover, upper timing chain cover, oil pan, etc.). If those look good then I'd try doing a Berryman B12 piston soak. Check out EuroTrashMotorsports youtube channel. He shows you how to do a Berryman B12 piston soak which has been successful for not only several members here, but other people in other, non-Audi car forums. So there is hope!

Here's Part 1 (of 3) of the videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5e3xQeXCLo
(spoiler alert, the Berryman B12 is the clear winner, don't bother with other stuff like Seafoam)

For comparison, we have a 2016 allroad with similar miles and it has the same engine as your 2013. Allegedly, all the B8.5's have the same style rings but for whatever reason, our allroad doesn't burn any oil. It gets 5K mile oil changes and I have done a couple engine flushes on it just as a preventative measure (the efficacy of engine flushes is debatable however...some expert recommend, some say they don't do anything, some say they harm the motor so YMMV). The ONLY issue that the allroad has had is a weeping upper timing change cover gasket (explained a few posts ago). Other than that, just regular maintenance (definitely do 5K mile OCIs, not the "factory recommended, but terrible for longevity of the motor" 10K mile OCIs.).


edit: typo fix

[Kolbenringe]

I think LATER engines are less susceptible to clogged piston rings which leads to oil consumption (unless terribly maintained or just bad luck?). The 2016 allroad 2.0T recently used up a bit of oil (1/4 down from max on the MMI). It was topped off and again used up a bit fairly quickly (went down just 1/4 from max on the MMI just like before) but it didn't used any more than that which was odd. Took a look at it and there was light weeping around the gasket on the upper timing chain cover (bottom front of the cover was lightly coated in oil and dust/dirt)

Using Nepali_Man's excellent thread as a guide, changed out the two gaskets and the magnetic variator's o-ring along with a oil and filter change and the allroad hasn't used a drop of oil since.

https://www.audizine.com/forum/showt...oil-leak-FIXED

In retrospect, I honestly think the cover just needed retorquing as a couple of the bolts felt looser than expected when I was removing the cover. Plus I took a good look at the original gaskets and there was nothing visibly wrong with them and they were still pliable but since I already had the replacement gaskets, I changed them all out anyways and then properly torqued the bolts to spec in the correct sequence.

UPDATE: 2000 miles later, zero drop in oil level via the MMI and dipstick. Typo correction.

That was a rumor pushed by TheIceman here and forums worldwide cited his posts as saying 2012 and up engines had all problems solved from oil burning to the timing chain tensioners, but mostly the former. Now that the post-2012 engines are of age and mileage, they're now replacing the B8-era engines in the 60k mile rebuild pipelines. Iceman has since backtracked or flipflopped on this, but his post history still shows how he was pushing the 2012 vehicles being "fixed" when they're not. I posted the part numbers in the past for the slotted ring pistons available from Kolbenschmidt that my repair is designed to mimic without the expense of new pistons.

He even tried to claim that my repair that was developed by Kolbenschmidt wouldn't work and my engine still doesn't consume any major amount of motor oil years after the rebuild and reringing using Kolbenschmidt slotted rings and modified pistons according to a Kolbenschmidt procedure to allow fitting of the new rings and to allow better drainage.

[maRS5]

He even tried to claim that my repair that was developed by Kolbenschmidt wouldn't work and my engine still doesn't consume any major amount of motor oil years after the rebuild and reringing using Kolbenschmidt slotted rings and modified pistons according to a Kolbenschmidt procedure to allow fitting of the new rings and to allow better drainage.

Based on what I've seen on the older rings (the "pin hole" rings), I would imagine that a slotted ring should work MUCH better w/o having to change pistons to utilized the waffle rings. The slots offer so much more oil flow than those ridiculously small holes in the original design. I didn't realize exactly how small those holes were until I got my hands on an actual oil ring from a B8 A4 that was upgraded.

If those are the rings that are in the 2016 allroad, I'm not sure how they're not clogged already. I had read somewhere that there MIGHT have been oil ring change in mid-2015 production until the end of the B8.5 production (I think 2016 was the last year for the B8.5 in the States).

[Kolbenringe]

Based on what I've seen on the older rings (the "pin hole" rings), I would imagine that a slotted ring should work MUCH better w/o having to change pistons to utilized the waffle rings. The slots offer so much more oil flow than those ridiculously small holes in the original design. I didn't realize exactly how small those holes were until I got my hands on an actual oil ring from a B8 A4 that was upgraded.

If those are the rings that are in the 2016 allroad, I'm not sure how they're not clogged already. I had read somewhere that there MIGHT have been oil ring change in mid-2015 production until the end of the B8.5 production (I think 2016 was the last year for the B8.5 in the States).

It's not only the slotting of the rings- the holes in the pistons are expanded to get the oil out, otherwise the rings would clog again. Part of the reason for all this is the drains in the pistons are tiny and clog as well. There was also a series of LS pistons where the holes were too small and that led to excessive oil consumption, so the owners simply drill them out. Even if you have the waffle-style rings, if the oil flow is too slow, the oil will eventually coke in those as well and we're seeing this on post-2012 cars, some have the original style, some the waffle style. The original fake news from that poster here was that the original style ring with the pinholes stopped being used in the 2012 MY cars, but numerous people have reported that their cars had the old style rings years past 2012. The ones with the later ring types are also showing up to get rebuilds due to excessive oil consumption and part of it is drainback, part of it is low tension. This could potentially be the reason why some rebuild engines with newer pistons still consume oil after 60k miles again- they're using the ones for Audi to avoid having to change the connecting rods by going to the VW ones. This is why I opted for the slotted Kolbenschmidt fix and it saves quite a bit of money to have the existing pistons modified instead of putting in the ready-made ones. My rebuilder who helped develop this fix said his results weren't as good going with new pistons and this one is the "permanent" fix.

The slotted rings, at least in the fixed version available from Kolbenschmidt rebuild partners, enlarge the ring land, open the drainback holes, and the rings themselves exert more tangential pressure.