My "new" 2001 180 TT quattrow/39K miles seems to have a surprisingly large oil appetite; 1 qt. in 1000 miles. Is this unusual? What have other people experienced?

 

Mine uses 0 in 5000 miles.

 

sounds more like a leak then a bad ring. Search for leaks: front of block under intake manifold, top and bottom of tubo, drain plug. and if none are found do a compression test to test for a bad ring.

 

to me it sound like one of the 3.
1: Bad rings
2:Leak (possibly at the filter, at the oil cooler thingy above the filter orat the turbo line)
3: bad turbo ( turbo could have gone bad and although it spins, its loosing oil for you. that oil usually endsup in the intercooler)
if you loosen up the bottom plastic pan and see no oil in there then its # 1 or #3. i'm almost positive its 1or3. as 1 quart per 1k miles would leavea messunder your car every time you parked. if you can handle a couple of screws, just park your car, turn the wheels all the way to the right and there you will see the pancake pipe. if you pop it off from the intercooler and see a bunch of oil then your turbo is leaking. (a little bit of it is ok as your blowby from the engine crankcase and valve cover gets recirculated back into the intake (blowby is basically oily fumes). Other alternative is the bad rings which require a compression test, as stated previously. badrings means youre infor it. at that point you might as well sell the car and buy another as you will loose less money, and i'm not being mean, justhave dealt with such repairs all around with different cars and its never cheap.even when you do it yourself, there are so many parts you have to replace that costs go up....... hope the best 4 u ...good luck

 

just as a note, if its a costly repair, dont go to the dealer to get it checked out. goto a small vw shopto find out what it is and then extend your warranty. you can buywarrany from the dealer afterthe original expires. all you have to dois take it in for a checkup. they'll do an inspection then approve youor not . after which you wait a bit and then take it in to get it fixed. i know.... thats not right, but it will work depending on how thorough the dealer is. most of the time they see it, check if its stock and its clean and approve you. costs around 2k but well worth it.plus youre right at the correct milage

 

If it was the turbo the car would be a fog machine. It would spit oil out the exhaust tip(s) until the heat picks up and then you would leave a cloud behind you.

 

a little consuption is normal. they all are supposed to burn a little oil. it will burn more if you redline the car more often then say a normal driver. 1.8t heads seperate a little from the block when pushed really hard (typically the amu and bea block codes.) look into the overflow bottle too see if there is any oil in the tank. it usually deposits there. it might also be worth while to look into running higher weight oils. if all else fails then there is a mechanical problem. lots of different things it could be there.

 

Is the overflow bottle the pancake pipe?

 

the pancake pipe is the crushed pipe in the intercooler piping, thus pancake.

 

Check, the oil feed line to the turbo, your dipstick tube as these have been know to crack, and the valve cover gasket for leaks, I had all three when I was leaking oil. Now im at 0 qts in 4000 miles.