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Oil may not be well with our S5, as its recurring thirst for engine fluid demonstrates

By Neil Carey
It’s always a little worrying to see Mr Meaden’s name pop up on your phone. It usually either means some copy is going to be late or that he’s about to pass on some joke that you will undoubtedly be the butt of. However, on this occasion I was pleasantly surprised when Dickie asked if I would like to borrow the S5 for my Christmas pilgrimage back to Wales. He was having to rough it in an Aston for the holidays and had no need for a £40K ornament parked outside his house, so just to help him out I forced myself to say yes…

The daunting combination of Christmas Eve traffic and frozen tarmac somehow seemed less worrying when I knew I’d be tucked up in the leather-lined quattro coupe, and things got even better when I loaded our presents and luggage into the cavernous boot with space to spare.

Obviously it was all going too well, so it was with a certain sense of inevitability that, whilst merrily cruising along with ‘Jingle Bells’ playing in my head, an extra ding came from the car’s computer to let me know it was short of oil.

A litre of Castrol’s finest later and all was well – until a few miles down the road when the obviously thirsty V8 asked for another litre. So I sated its thirst once more and carried on, wondering if there would be yet another request for more vital fluids.

There wasn’t, and there hasn’t been since, but as our old RS4 long-termer enjoyed a few generous top-ups too, it looks like Audi’s V8 may have some issues. Let us know if you’ve found the same, or not.

evo Statistics
Date acquired: October 2007

Total mileage: 8527

Mileage this month: 1506

Costs this month: £31.13 (oil)

MPG this month: 22.3

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Any new car will consume oil at a higher rate than normal until it is worn in. No doubt being a test car you were driving it harder than normal also which would increase oil use especially in a new car with such low milage.

This has been the case with Audi I have driven. After about 10-15000 it will stop drinking so much oil.

Modern Engines if handled with care for the first 5,000 km don't consume much old later in their lifetimes.

I have the suspicion that that particular S5 was handled pretty bad for the first thousand km and that has caused the oil issues.

The first few hundred miles of a new engine's life have a major impact on how strongly that engine will perform, how much oil it will consume and how long it will last. The main purpose of break-in is to seat the compression rings to the cylinder walls. We are talking about the physical mating of the engine's piston rings to it's corresponding cylinder wall. That is, we want to physically wear the new piston rings into the cylinder wall until a compatible seal between the two is achieved.
Proper engine break in will produce an engine that achieves maximum power output with the least amount of oil consumption due to the fact that the piston rings have seated properly to the cylinder wall. When the piston rings are broken in or seated, they do not allow combustion gases to escape the combustion chamber past the piston rings into the crankcase section of the engine. This lack of "blow-by" keeps your engine running cleaner and cooler by preventing hot combustion gases and by-products from entering the crankcase section of the engine. Excessive "blow-by" will cause the crankcase section of the engine to become pressurized and contaminated with combustion gases, which in turn will force normal oil vapors out of the engine's breather, causing the engine to consume excessive amounts of oil.

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Sadly this is the case with most press cars. They pass through numerous pairs of hands and are frequently flogged from cold.

Why can't the stupid testers treat the engines nicely when it's cold?

I guess because they're not paying for the cars themselves (or the fuel, for that matter!) More often than not, they just don't care.

That engine has always had an appetite for oil. Nothing new.

You're making the wrong assumption. I've been traveling in this S5 for the past few weeks and its always been well looked after and driven quite sedately. Richard will be handing it back shortly and will be sad to see it go. Unlike some press cars he's become quite attached to it and in fact has remained its keeper (without letting anyone else drive it). But it's been thirsty for oil since day 1, and he drives by changing up early rather than taking it through to higher revs. Always has done.

The same is true of my 2007 RS4 Avant. I look after it meticulously but on a recent 1600 mile journey to and from the Alps, it consumed a whole litre of oil. Much like many other RS4s it also smokes when the oil level is above three-quarters on the dipstick. Many other RS4 and S5 owners state the same kind of oil consumption, so its not a driver issue.

Yeah but it isn't good for the car. Long life services are to blame for many break down because the oil doesn't get changed enough and clogs up the pipes in the engine, happened to our Audi..cost a bit to get them all cleaned out.

Hence my use of the word 'most'. Obviously there are exceptions the rule and it is refreshing to read that mechanical sympathy is still alive and kicking amongst motoring journalists. I'm assuming you're from EVO?

Thanks for the clarification, although I would still argue that this isn't universally the case. I've seen what some testers do to cars.