I noticed slight smoke coming from my engine and i took it in to the shop and was told i have a small cam seal leak. they told me the car was fine to drive and since i'm in school, i decided i would wait until the summer to have it fixed. in the mean time, my gas mileage has been cut in half almost. i am barely getting 12mpg city. could this be due to the leak? from what i understand, the leak is very small and only allowing small drops of oil to escape. could the problem be more complicated than the shop thinks? any input is appreciated! btw, the car is a B5 S4. thanks again.

 

I doubt that small leaks would effect the mpg in that way, perhaps a full service is in order also check for any fault codes or you have a fuel leak

 

The leak isn't causing it. The VCG are around 6hrs of labor to replace & $75 for the gaskets. So it's not a cheap job.

For the gas thing...
Check all the filters, & most importantly, the CTS, it will cause this & the car will drive fine.

 

thanks for the input, what/where exactly is the CTS? i'm not worried about the cam seal replacement (covered under warranty), which i'm assuming is the VCG? i know enough, just not too technical with the shorthand terms. thanks.

 

Coolant Temp Sensor.