All-

Just got my 97 1.8TQA back from it's 30 month service (has ~26k miles) and was informed that it had only 1.7 quarts of oil when I rolled it in. I was informed that burning that much oil in 6000 miles was not abnormal consumption for this engine. There were "no signs of leaks" and the car shows no signs of burning oil coming out the tailpipe.
So here are my questions:
1) Is this truly normal? I don't like our dealer's shop one bit (Anderson-Behel in CA), so I don't fully buy that this is normal just because they say so. It seems strange that the service interval is 7500 miles, but you can consume over half of it in 6000 miles...

2) Other than religiously monitoring my oil level every 500 miles now, is there anything else I need to keep an eye on or get checked before the warranty expires?

3) Do I need to worry about long term problems to the engine because it was driving around on so little oil? It seems happy now, so I have my fingers crossed.

Finally, what are the rules about taking your Audi to another dealer for warranty servicing? I have seen a lot of positive comments about Steve Shupe at Carlsen Audi in Palo Alto. We have had a lot of problems with our dealer- lots of annoying little rattles and buzzes that they claim they can't hear much less fix. I won't even start in on how many visits it took to fix the windows that squealed like metal on glass every time you put them down...

Thanks in advance,

Steve
(whose wife gets the A4, while he drives the clunker Olds...)

In my experience, "normal" oil use on a 92 Honda Civic with 142,000 miles between 6000 mile oil changes has been ZERO, certainly little enough that I never added oil between changes. So far in 2000 miles on my 98.5 1.8T QS bought used, I see no measurable sign of oil loss. I check oil routinely with every or every other fillup.

Your oil is going somewhere it should not be going.
If it's not leaking in visible locations, then it is likely being burned in amounts too small to produce obvious smoking. Neither should be considered normal in my opinion.

And yes, I'd say only 1.7 quarts in a system calling for nearly 4 is cause for concern and in no way could be considered "normal." The loss problem has a mechanical cause; the failure to notice the decline to 1.7 is human, however. I'd recommend checking oil at every fillup. You need to track the pattern of oil loss; you may have larger warranty issues at stake here.
Lewis
98.5 1.8T QSTip

NT

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