jimcap1225

Is it normal for a 2009 q5 to have to add two quarts of oil between oil changes. The car has 15000 miles on it.

HaveBullDogWillTravel

If you have the 3.2 V6 the short answer is NO. That may be normal useage for an engine that wasn't broken in properly or has been abused or has some other issue going on.

Mine uses about 1/4 Qt between changes(every 5000 miles).

tosten

Great timing. I had an oil question. I have about 4300 miles on 2.0T, I noticed the other day my oil level had finally dropped down a notch from full. Notification hadn't gone off, just bored in traffic playing with the MMI buttons. I'm guessing at this point I probably don't need to add any oil. Assuming it drops at the same rate, I will have already been in for my first oil change.

For non-aftermarket dipstick folks, what level are you typically adding more oil?

dbrowne1

2 quarts every 10K or every 5K?

Either way the dealer and AoA will tell you it is normal, but it's not. They will call anything up to 1 qt/1000 miles "normal" which is absurd.

I don't have a solution for you, but don't expect the dealer or AoA to do anything.

dbrowne1

The loss shown on your MMI is probably not even 1/4 quart. Not even worth worrying about or topping off. That's about what my 2.0T and my 1.8T use in a 5K interval, which is pretty low consumption.

jdong

The "empty" level on MMI is one quart low. This is usually when I add (it's also when the car clearly warns you to "Please add 1qt oil, you may continue driving")... If you add before that, it's a bit of a hassle because you have to play this game of add a little bit and wait a day for the MMI to update.

serranot

A quart every 5k? Could be entirely normal.

Just drive it and stop fretting.

dbrowne1

A quart in 5K isn't awful, but I'd be curious about what's happening to that entire quart of oil when other examples of the same precisely manufactured modern engine are consuming 1/4 of that.

serranot

It is rather common to have a mass-produced engine exhibit different rates of oil consumption. There is no real mystery. A quart every 5k is probably routine blow-by.

When you think about the number of strokes the typical piston makes while driving 1 mile, then multiply that by 6, then multiply that by 5000, then divide that number into 1 quart, you will find than the amount of oil consumed in one piston stroke is infinitesimal.

Compare that to the 2.0T, which is exhibiting normal oil burn rates of a quart every 1.5 to 2k miles. The amount consumed per cylinder is 5-6 times more oil.

I guess I'm saying that, in the grand scope of what can be "wrong" with these cars, I'd just drive it and not forget to add a quart when the warning comes on. There are so many other possible things to actually worry about, e.g., the carbon problems, that this is not even worth considering.

dbrowne1

You're assuming it's blowby.

Also, what substance do you think is actually building up on the intake valves? Where does it come from?