Fabia VRS oil consumption

Muppet Man · 17-08-2014 11:21pm #1

Hi folks,

Bought a 2011 skoda fabia vrs from a main dealer about 2 months ago. Car was sold with a 1 year warranty. The car is great and it goes like stink when pushed. Hard to believe sometimes it's only a 1.4 engine. I have been tracking oil and fuel consumption fairly closely.

It's averaging about 30 mpg If I drive like an asshat, and about 33 mpg if I take it easy. Very consistent numbers from all petrol fills, measured by brimming the fuel tank.

Worse than that, it's burning 1 litre of oil every 1,000 km --- like clockwork. Absolutely guaranteed to have the oil light on every 1,000. I top it up each time with 1 litre with the recommended grade (Castrol edge).

The interweb has a lot of threads about similar problems... And all suggestions involve contacting the dealer. I am going to do this tomorrow, now that I have 2 months of data to go back to them with.

Car when bought had 36,000 km on clock.

Has anyone here had similar issues... How were they handled... What was the outcome (some of the uk sites are taking about engine rebuilds)

Cheers,
Muppet man.

Hachiko · 17-08-2014 11:33pm

has it regular services, 1litre is basically from min to max and way too much consumption over that many miles.

christy02 · 18-08-2014 12:00am

Hachiko wrote: »

has it regular services, 1litre is basically from min to max and way too much consumption over that many miles.

Not always true. Owners manual on my accord states that up to 1l per 1000 km is normal consumption.
It doesn't use anywhere near that but obviously covering themselves.

Op take a look at maintenance section in manual. If it says something similar they may just brush it off as normal use. Especially if you drive it hard.

Hachiko · 18-08-2014 12:55am

unless you rag it, its not normal usage. even if you rag a car it should not drop that much.

and since the OPs car is relatively new something certainly is not right.

noelf · 18-08-2014 1:13am

According to honestjohn.co.uk the vrs. Was dropped from the Fabia range late 2013 due to severe oil consumption problems ... Many engines have had to be replaced. Your car still has a warranty ?

Muppet Man · 18-08-2014 7:49am

Thanks folks... definitely not ragging the car - thats for sure - roads arent good enough around the city for that! The Car sold from main dealer with 1 year warranty - however good that is - we'll see, I will be calling the Dealer later today. I will check the owners manual later today to see what that says about oil usage

Thanks all for the comments so far.
Muppet Man

Gumbo · 18-08-2014 12:05pm

I just bought a MK1 Fabia VRs. where abouts in the city are you?
Since ive bought i have seen 2 VRs Fabias, both MK2 versions like yourself, a green one and a red one.

kerten · 18-08-2014 12:27pm

These 1.4lt engines in ibiza cupra/polo gti/fabia vrs are known for excessive oil consumption.

I remember chatting with a skoda/vw service manager about this issue and he said he owns a ibiza with this engine and it doesn't consume the oil that much but he uses 10w/60 mobil oil with the car.

Still I would bug the dealer.

Muppet Man · 18-08-2014 8:09pm

Owners manual says:
"Oil consumption could be as high as 0.5 litres/1 000 km depending on your style of driving. It is quite normal that a new engine has a higher oil consumption at first, and reaches its lowest level only after a certain running in time. It is therefore not possible to correctly assess the oil consumption of a new vehicle until after you have driven about 5 000 km."

So I am using exactly twice that amount - consistently, and not really ripping up the tarmac either.

Rang the dealer today and they agreed "it seems high"... they said they would look into on their systems for next recommended steps and give me a call back... fingers crossed for a good outcome. Thanks all for feedback so far.

Muppet Man

D16TURBO · 18-08-2014 9:04pm

Yeah I was looking at these before and the problems that the UK owners have had really put me off. Apparently any one who ragged them from the start didn't have the high oil consumption. I hope it works out for you OP.

Muppet Man · 10-11-2014 9:31pm

Just to close the loop on this, in case it happens to others....

The skoda dealer, Western motors drogheda, analysed the situation by doing an oil consumption test. Effectively, they drained it of oil completely, put a known/exact amount of oil into the engine and asked me to drive it for 1000 km's, after which they would drain it again and measure the exact amount of oil used. As I half expected myself the oil light came on after 700km's and having topped it up before myself, I would guess that was at least 1 litre used. They asked me to drive it another 300 km's but I refused and brought it back to them. I don't know the exact official consumption figures, but They accepted it was high. Under instruction from skoda HQ they also did a carbon test to rule out petrol stretching, which came back clear.

The net result of all these tests was basically I got a brand new vrs engine into my 2011 skoda under the warranty I got from Western motors. The new replacement engine has been modified to overcome the oil consumption issue. As I understand it, oil was being sucked out of the engine in the old (original) engine and It is a known issue.

When I originally collected the car late on a Friday evening, and started to drive it home, my heart sank when only 3 or 4 miles from western motors, it broke down again on the M1 southbound to Dublin. Engine just seemed to switch off in the fast lane and thankfully I was able to coast to the hard shoulder without issue. Despite the fact that they were closing up for the weekend, they had a car transporter out to me in 20 minutes, with another replacement car. I was fairly gutted to be honest....however, They rang me first thing on Monday morning to say that they diagnosed the issue. I had run out of petrol.... Totally fcuking embarrassed... Never happened in 20 years of driving. It's weird cos there was a range of 15 km's still on the clock and the needle was still comfortably in the red. So I don't know what that was about.

I've only recently got back, so it's probably too soon to say the issues are resolved, but I am hopeful.

During the 5 weeks that they had my car, they had organised a replacement 141 skoda Octavia, and when I ran out of petrol, a 142 vw polo.

Some dealers get slated on boards, but I would like at this point to call out the exceptional customer service experience that I had with Western motors. I was given a one year warranty with the car, and while many would argue this isn't worth anything, western motors at all times stood over the warranty, to a very considerable cost, and never once suggested I was liable for any of it. They organised two replacement cars, looked after MY insurance transfers onto the substitute vehicles, rang me with regular updates and were genuinely stressed when I 'broke down'.

They were all superb. Robbie in sales, klaus and Steve in the service centre and Louise on the front desk. Exceptionally nice people to deal with who took a genuine interest in my case.

TLDR;
engine banjaxed, got a new engine under warranty and had an exceptional customer service experience along the way.

There is 'value' - some of it intangible - in buying from a reputable dealer.

Thx
Muppet man

Alanstrainor · 10-11-2014 9:35pm

Great to hear that you got it sorted. Amazing service by the garage.

Voodoomelon · 10-11-2014 9:50pm

That's fantastic, great to hear. The ol' oil burning issues can be a nightmare for both dealers and customers. In what way was oil being sucked into the cylinders?

Muppet Man · 10-11-2014 10:10pm

Voodoomelon wrote: »

In what way was oil being sucked into the cylinders?

It was explained to me and I nodded like I knew what was being said

I would be doing them a disservice to try and re-explain it here, but AFAIR, it was related to the vacuum created by the air intake valves. Sorry I can't elaborate further, I'm no mechanic... I was genuinely stunned when I saw the cost of the work involved (not to me) and kinda didn't hear anything that was said after that

Muppet man

MuppetCheck · 10-11-2014 10:50pm

I had a similar experience from a Skoda garage on North Cork a few years ago with a very troublesome car. In fairness they do seem to have the dealers well sorted and the warranties are very comprehensive.

Hope the car keeps going well now, they're a cracking little motor!

jca · 10-11-2014 11:50pm

Muppet Man wrote: »

Just to close the loop on this, in case it happens to others....

The skoda dealer, Western motors drogheda, analysed the situation by doing an oil consumption test. Effectively, they drained it of oil completely, put a known/exact amount of oil into the engine and asked me to drive it for 1000 km's, after which they would drain it again and measure the exact amount of oil used. As I half expected myself the oil light came on after 700km's and having topped it up before myself, I would guess that was at least 1 litre used. They asked me to drive it another 300 km's but I refused and brought it back to them. I don't know the exact official consumption figures, but They accepted it was high. Under instruction from skoda HQ they also did a carbon test to rule out petrol stretching, which came back clear.

The net result of all these tests was basically I got a brand new vrs engine into my 2011 skoda under the warranty I got from Western motors. The new replacement engine has been modified to overcome the oil consumption issue. As I understand it, oil was being sucked out of the engine in the old (original) engine and It is a known issue.

When I originally collected the car late on a Friday evening, and started to drive it home, my heart sank when only 3 or 4 miles from western motors, it broke down again on the M1 southbound to Dublin. Engine just seemed to switch off in the fast lane and thankfully I was able to coast to the hard shoulder without issue. Despite the fact that they were closing up for the weekend, they had a car transporter out to me in 20 minutes, with another replacement car. I was fairly gutted to be honest....however, They rang me first thing on Monday morning to say that they diagnosed the issue. I had run out of petrol.... Totally fcuking embarrassed... Never happened in 20 years of driving. It's weird cos there was a range of 15 km's still on the clock and the needle was still comfortably in the red. So I don't know what that was about.

I've only recently got back, so it's probably too soon to say the issues are resolved, but I am hopeful.

During the 5 weeks that they had my car, they had organised a replacement 141 skoda Octavia, and when I ran out of petrol, a 142 vw polo.

Some dealers get slated on boards, but I would like at this point to call out the exceptional customer service experience that I had with Western motors. I was given a one year warranty with the car, and while many would argue this isn't worth anything, western motors at all times stood over the warranty, to a very considerable cost, and never once suggested I was liable for any of it. They organised two replacement cars, looked after MY insurance transfers onto the substitute vehicles, rang me with regular updates and were genuinely stressed when I 'broke down'.

They were all superb. Robbie in sales, klaus and Steve in the service centre and Louise on the front desk. Exceptionally nice people to deal with who took a genuine interest in my case.

TLDR;
engine banjaxed, got a new engine under warranty and had an exceptional customer service experience along the way.

There is 'value' - some of it intangible - in buying from a reputable dealer.

Thx
Muppet man

That's a great result. Hopefully you'll never have to look at a dipstick again. Keep us posted on how the new engine pans out.

fletch · 11-11-2014 10:45am

Great to hear you got sorted....I'm also driving a Fabia RS with high oil consumption...I mentioned it to my dealer but they said it was within acceptable parameters (they didn't go to the lengths that your dealer did to diagnose the issue though)
I have to monitor my oil usage very carefully and at all times have a 5ltr container in the boot ready to top up.

Fabia VRS oil consumption

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