Alright, whats the deal with this? Driving today into work and the "MIN OIL" light comes on.

I had my oil changed at 5000 miles, I have 10,000k right now. My next service call is at 15k. What am I driving a 1975 Pinto? "Low Oil"?

So, I call the dealer, he said for me to stop by tomorrow and they can add a quart.

Ummmmm ok, BUT, why the heck am I low on oil? And especially on a new car. Its only 5 months old.

Did they not add enough or the proper amount of oil the first oil change??
I didnt get an explanation over the phone but I will make sure to raise hell tomorrow in the service dept.

Has anyone had this issue? Sounds serious, new car and low on oil? what the !@#$%?

 

Your car actually seems to be doing well, judging by what's reported on the boards. I've been using 3/4 quart every 5k; others have reported useage up to a quart per thousand miles.I guess it's dependent on how you break in and drive your car.

 

To me its definetly concerning. In my opinion, any NEW car that is 4-5 months since out of the dealer lot, that loses oil, is a cause for concern.

So let me get this straight, this is common for A3's to burn oil and add 3/4 quarts every 5K?

That's just friggin' great.

 

Relax. Your car is functioning normally. Just treather like the lady that she is and show her some attention and check the oil regularly. There's a long post on here about that exact issue. Do a little searching and reading. You're not alone about being upset, but it really isn't a big deal, or a mechanical problem.

Cheers!

 

High performance engine with turbo = lots of burned oil, very common just check it on a regular basis.

 

Just to be clear - my car uses .75 quart per 5000 miles, less than a quart. That's pretty normal for any modern high performance engine, turbo or not. From your reaction, I thought you might have been reading it as 3-4 quarts per 5000.

 

Being my paranoid self, on the way home from work, I took my A3 to a specialized Audi mechanice who only works on Audi/VW/Benz/BMW. Family member actually. He checked it out and saw that my dip stick was pretty dry.

He actually got angry and asked if I was NUTS? He said that my kind of car needs to be oil checked every 1000 miles on a regular basis. Because it RPM's high. I asked if this caused any engine damage, and he said HOLD ON.

He poured 1 quart of the certain oil needed for my vehicle and told me to ONLY use this type of oil.
Then poured another. (Mobile 1 Synthetic) He said your fine, but if you waited longer you wouldnt be fine.

Told me to just check my oil every 1000 miles and I will be fine. I told him that my car is brand new and he said it doesnt matter, it still needs to be checked and oil needs to be added when needed.

He's an old school Italian guy who really got angry on the fact that I wasnt checking my oil every 1000 miles.

I feel better knowing its NOT some weird oil/engine defect on my car only. I am still a bit concerned I may have caused an issue because of the lack of oil, but he said its fine.

 

its normal. My car does the same thing, my light came on as well. Being a high performance turbo engine, it will burn oil. The turbo generates a LOT of heat if you drive hard at all, and with the tiny k03 turbo it spools even driving 'normally' so it will still heat up. Just keep an eye on it and use good quality synthetic oil.

 

A good habit is to check the oil each time the vehicle is refueled. That way the driver won't likely forget or give the car the opportunity to get too low.

 

Cool, thanks for the good advice.

Do you think I caused any minor engine damage at all, since I didnt notice or check the oil being low, until the light appeared on my console dash?

It needed 2 quarts of oil, to me that sounds like it was pretty low on oil, the audi speciliast told me its fine, but I just want to be reassured.