swturn83

Hi, I recently bought an Audi A4 TFSI 2009 (petrol) without knowledge of the well-documented oil consumption issue these models have. Well after driving 100 miles or so (there's 100k on the clock) the engine oil lamp came on so I topped up with a litre to get me home. A few days later and a few more miles, and it started misfiring. I took it to the nearest garage and they diagnosed cylinder 2 and 3 misfiring, with spark plugs caked in oil. They told me about the oil consumption issue so I did some research. I booked into the local audi dealership and yesterday they finally took a look at it. I thought they'd be doing the oil consumption test everyone talks about, and I was preparing to go down that route and show service history etc. However, they're claiming it's an oil leak from the cam cover and they need to strip this and the chain to seal the cover. 6 hours labour + parts at >£1200. This shocked me - I've only had the car 2 months and this is nearly a quarter what I paid to buy it! So I asked my local garage that took the initial look and they said they can do the work cheaper but they don't think it will solve the issue because oil is getting to the spark plug from inside the engine not outside. I'm not sure what that means.
I want to push Audi on this - can it be that the fault in the engine (this oil consumption issue) us actually the route cause and they should replace the piston and rings to solve it all? Or is it likely that it could be the gasket covers and that would solve the misfiring? If so, is that not on Audi to cover the cost of anyway? Thanks for any advice.

jagtoes

If there is oil on the tip of the plugs then it is caused by oil getting into the cylinder. This could be caused by oil leaking by the valves but more likely from the problem with the piston rings. You can try to argue this with Audi but it might be difficult to have them pay for any work. You purchased the car "as is" so you may have to pay the bill. This sounds typical of the engine problem and will not be fixed by replacing the cam cover gasket. Good luck.

SMac770

But which end of the plugs are in oil? I had a problem with oil in the plug holes on my G35 when they went to do the plugs and they replaced the valve covers to fix the leak.
I assume the dealer is saying the issue is where the cylinder head cover and the cylinder head come together?
If your local is saying the end of the plug inside the cylinder is caked, then it would be with soot I assume.
Hell, you could even have a head gasket leak and oil is getting into the cylinder that way.

If you're unsure, make the dealer tech show you what he sees that says "do this". Either the data and conclusion make sense or they don't.
For all you know, they're guessing, to a service that will be nice and expensive to do. And what if it doesn't solve the leak? What's their obligation to not charge for their diagnostic failure?

If you've not shown that you're burning a quart within 1k miles, then oil consumption test and going that route is not really an Audi concern. They consider burning a quart per 1k officially acceptable.
By time they finally replaced the pistons/rings for me, I was burning a quart every 300 miles, with no externally visible oil leak exhibits.

swturn83

Thanks very much for the quick replies. I went to the Audi dealer and asked for more detail and a chat with the technician. That helped. I questioned whether replacing the cam cover would solve the route cause and he agreed that the work quoted would be carried out by the overall engine rebuild should it fail the oil consumption test. I need to provide more detail on the service history - which I'm waiting on from the old garage that serviced it every year with the previous owner - and then the dealer can take it to Audi to see if they will commission the oil consumption test. The technician did say that the issue with the gaskets is not what is causing the misfire, he said it's not urgent work, which left me questioning the whole thing - I went in there originally because it was misfiring! He just said if there's a leak, they have to fix that first but then seemed to change his opinion as I questioned more. I asked how would I drive 500 miles in a test if it misfires when I drive about 50 miles - which it has been doing, and I said I think that's because of excessive oil consumption in the past burning and damaging the piston rings. He seemed to agree but said he'd cleaned the spark plugs and I should be ok for now - at least to carry out the test, IF Audi agree. Seems I still have some way to go, and some luck needed.

uberwgn

SW, welcome aboard. I hope you can work out something with Audi. The problems you view today might just be the tip of the iceberg. These engines have other weaknesses when they approach the mileage you have.

In the USA, if the written service history isn't perfect, they (Audi) simply shut things down at that point in terms of coverage/assistance. Good luck with it.

SMac770

Yeah, I was not relating the part about the misfires. When I had my oil consumption issue simply due to rings/pistons, the engine had no other operational issue.
If there's plug fouling to the point of misfiring, it's not going to be just rings/pistons, I would guess. Maybe this is why the Audi tech feels there must be much more oil getting in.
I was putting in a quart per 2000 down to 300 miles over the course of 6000 miles or so before they finally fixed it. The engine never had any operational issues otherwise during this time.