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This is a tragic tale of a high mileage (127k) B6 bought sight unseen off of eBay from a small used car dealer in northeast PA at a relatively low price about 18 months ago. Their feedback was mostly positive, though while I was in the middle of my transaction, someone bought a Benz from them that supposedly needed about $3000 worth of work.

They were over 4 hours away from where I lived and I was assured the S4 would be a great car because the salesperson had been driving it for the past 3 months and it was awesome.

In fact, it was so awesome that about 50 miles after it arrived at my house and came off of the flatbed, it needed not only a new clutch, but a new flywheel, too. Not to mention the gas gauge did not read correctly, the fuel tank could not be filled more than half full, the right front suspension needed work, and the glove box door and armrest lid were broken at their hinges. Also, the coolant reservoir was slowly leaking, the valve cover gaskets needed replacing, and both fuel level senders and entire gas tank had to be replaced (the gas tank had a dent in it, possibly from an earlier accident). Currently, it needs a new passenger side front window regulator, the warning light for the dynamic headlight adjustment is on (code shows issue at the left front), and intermittently, the same light comes on that comes on when you press the ESP button.

I drove my B5 wagon while I decided what to do with the S4, and before I discovered all of the other issues above. The car sat in my garage for a year before its first trip to the dealer for the clutch and flywheel replacement (went with a JHM setup with updated flywheel).

So, now the reason for my post. After the clutch and flywheel were replaced and I could finally drive the car, a few hundred miles passed by and the oil level light came on. Obviously, it was another pre-existing issue that I had not been told about.

At this point, the oil level light comes on consistently about every 400 miles or so and I just add it before it does. There are no strange sounds, and the only CEL I see is for a warm-up catalyst on the driver side. As far as I can tell, I am not seeing any smoke from the exhaust, though the driver side tip seems to be darker than the passenger side. I use only VW/Audi-approved oil and filters. The car has been to the dealer enough times that they would have spotted any other leaks.

I recently drove the car to Florida from Pennsylvania. Gas mileage averaged around 20 mpg, and it ran fine - though with this being my first S4, I do not know how 'powerful' it should feel.

I've read the other B6 oil horror stories. Audi Customer Service was no help. Feel free to weigh in on what may be wrong. Thanks!