lookingforadvice8

Hello! Looking for some advice on what to do with my car after a recent diagnostic. 2011 A4 Quattro. Bought it 3 years ago at 85k miles. Currently at 125k. Since I bought it, I’ve had to add a quart of oil about every ~600 miles and recently has been slightly more often. Have recently noticed white smoke from exhaust. Took it in and was told “Verified customer concern on smoking from exhaust. found oil level low. also found excessive crank case pressure indicating vehicle has piston ring failure causing engine to burn oil. vehicle needs engine replacement.”
I have to sell the car soon anyways because I am moving overseas. Engine seems to be running normally and engine temp is normal. Wondering how much life could be left on this engine. Also wondering if I sell as is (it is in great condition-besides this issue- and such a pretty car) how much would be fair of me to ask if an engine replacement is imminent. Thanks in advance for any inputs!

SMac770

excessive crankcase pressure would be a broken PCV, not broken rings. Though if you're doing a qt / 600mi, you probably need new rings. Since it looks like you just want to dump the car anyway, no point paying the amount to really do anything with the engine at this point. No idea what the car would be worth for parts. PCV is a $150 part and is easy to replace. Rings is going to be several grand.

Yeah, most of the B8.0 would be worth a lot, if it weren't for the massive dice roll regarding the piston rings and the fact that it's a many thousands in repair issue..

Airbag

so you are not getting the whole story ....

there are two sets of rings in an engine that work completely independently.

what are toast in your engine are the oil control rings or oil " scraper rings " . The mechanic is correct in that it either requires a replacement engine or a complete rebuild of yours. this is completely unrelated to PCV pressures . which would be blow by of compression rings increasing crankcase pressure which i dont think is an issue. If anything as pointed out just a bad PCV. In fact im not sure i would buy that even and verify crankcase vacuum.

Anyway you can drive it a very long time just adding oil and it will be fine. The car however is close to worthless if you disclose it is a massive oil burner and the buyer is educated in these matters, as cost of engine replacement could equal value of the car.

BobbyDigital007

Hi everyone...I have a 2015 A4, and it's burning through a quart of oil 300 miles or so. Just this week it started missing on start, and then on the highway unable to accelerate past 1500 RPM. Mechanic change the plugs which were fully fouled with oil. No one wants to do the work to change the rings as they say either, "get in there and it's even more work if there's something else wrong" or "not worth the trouble". Oil consumption started around 130K. I'm at 180K now. Likely this isn't going to get better but $5K for what seems like a $8-10K value car is not good odds. Probably gonna run to the ground and hope that changing oil and then plugs more frequently will help

Airbag

id do a piston soak on that car .. id almost guarantee it will do wonders for that car.

Log on to Audizine and see what is involved.. It is an investment of time really that is all.. guys are reporting great success . Nothing to lose !!!

142 guy

I thought the 2015 model year engines were out of the piston ring issue.

I am unable to provide any advice on the piston soak; but , other than a few dollars you don't really have anything to lose by trying. With respect to the engines that were part of the oil consumption settlement with Audi, simple replacement of the rings is not a solution as the ring design is defective. The repair involves a new piston ring design which matches with a new piston design which requires new connecting rods. This is all stuff from the later design engine which I thought I think the official Audi fix kit is around $2000 - $3000 in parts. As such, don't go looking for a simple ring replacement as the solution

There was a subsequent extension of some kind that included engines up to 2017. You might want to investigate what is involved with those later engines. However, everything that I have read suggest 2015 was the later design and did not suffer from the same issues. If you confirm that you actually have a 2015 model year engine, the repair may be less costly than the full 'Audi fix kit'.

Airbag

unfortunately not , we are seeing more and more 8.5s with oil burning issues as miles climb, yup 15s and 16s too. after a certain rev you had the larger wrist pin so money can be saved there.. as you will just need pistons and rings as mentioned. But either way, a rebuild is costly as its " engine out" if you cant do it yourself. so definitely worth the try to do piston soak

A8CT

For what it’s worth, I have two B8.5’s nearing 100k miles and neither burn a drop between changes which I do every 4k (5k max) with full synthetic.

Oil changes have been that since new. One is a ‘14 and the other a ‘15.

egebhardt

Ok... I'm reading it like this:

1 - change the Earl ((oil) (VGG reference)) every 4,000 miles or less. You'll be glad.
2 - do the Berryman Piston Soak seen below...
3 - if B8.5 CMPA or CPMB engine (with 23mm wrist-pin-diameter) oil-burning and #2 did NOT fix it, replace the pistons/rings because your piston rods are the right size for the newer pistons/rings.
4 - if B8.0 CAEB or CAED engine (with 21mm wrist pins) and #2 did NOT fix it, scrap the engine. Replacing pistons and piston rods is too expensive.