So my relatively new to me 1.8T is using oil much faster than I would like. I have been doing some informal tracking (by memory rather than writing stuff down) and it looks like it would go through ~1qt of oil in ~1000 miles when I got it a couple of months ago. Not great, but from what I have read not bad enough that the dealer would have done anything about it were it still under warrantee (which it's not at 180K miles). BTW, this is an 2001 Audi A4 B5 platform, manual tranny. Very similar to my '01 Passat B5 4mo except for the manual tranny.
I have looked for the obvious things, oil wet areas, pools of oil under the car or on the plastic bottom plate, and have not seen any obvious signs. There is some oil wetness by the rear valve cover (opposite end from the timing belt), but not the sort of thing that looks like quarts of oil have been going out there. Turbo seals are another prime suspect I know, but I am a bit unsure how to check them on this engine. There does not appear to be an intercooler, and the turbo air output goes right into the intake manifold with the turbo bolted to the IM. So short of dropping the turbo, no way to check there, and the exhaust seem equally problematic to check. The car recently passed emissions with pretty good numbers. I have ocassionally noticed a puff of smoke when starting, but only a puff, it's not fogging the neighborhood. So perhaps the turbo seals are involved.
Just curious if folks have any suggestions of where to look. Any simple way to look at the turbo vanes and shaft or otherwise rule out oil there? Where are the other likely spots where oil could be escaping without leaving an obvious puddle or stain?
TIA
I have looked for the obvious things, oil wet areas, pools of oil under the car or on the plastic bottom plate, and have not seen any obvious signs. There is some oil wetness by the rear valve cover (opposite end from the timing belt), but not the sort of thing that looks like quarts of oil have been going out there. Turbo seals are another prime suspect I know, but I am a bit unsure how to check them on this engine. There does not appear to be an intercooler, and the turbo air output goes right into the intake manifold with the turbo bolted to the IM. So short of dropping the turbo, no way to check there, and the exhaust seem equally problematic to check. The car recently passed emissions with pretty good numbers. I have ocassionally noticed a puff of smoke when starting, but only a puff, it's not fogging the neighborhood. So perhaps the turbo seals are involved.
Just curious if folks have any suggestions of where to look. Any simple way to look at the turbo vanes and shaft or otherwise rule out oil there? Where are the other likely spots where oil could be escaping without leaving an obvious puddle or stain?
TIA