After recently picking up a 2010 Audi A5 2.0TFSI convertible, i have learned of an interesting issue that the TFSI Engine has (early ones)
What is the issue?
Early versions of the TFSI petrol engines found in the A4, A5 and Q5 have an manufacture design flaw which leads to high consumption of oil. The Piston rings inside the engines when built were the wrong size/ not sealed in correctly, this would allow small amounts of oil to leak around them. The oil would get into the cylinders and then burn off and lead to high consumption.
2 ways to tell potentially if you have this issue:
- You are adding more oil than usual, i was using about 1 litre every 500 miles or so – with no obvious sign of a leak
- Black exhaust tips – the oil eventually burns out the exhaust system, mine were as black as my A3 TDI!
Audi’s Position?
I noticed both of these issues within 100miles my A5 started using a bit of oil, this worried me to a point that i did a quick search engine lookup and i came across the official page for this:
It seems that in 2015 Audi officially recognised this as an issue and started fixing on the quiet. Off the back of this i do feel sorry for anyone prior to this paying for this to be fixed or worse just living with this issue!
Steps to take?
After a call to Audi UK i found out that Audi has an official stage process to this to get it fixed.
Stage 1 – Oil Consumption test
Firstly you need to get the official usage figure recorded by Audi, for this i used my local dealer. I left my A5 with them for a day whilst they drained the car of oil, changed oil breather (uprated design) and flashed the Engine ECU software to cope with the new design breather. The oil will be topped up to a specific measured amount and you will be asked to drive few hundred miles or when the oil light comes on.
In my case i drove about 500 miles and it used about 3/4 of a litre according to the MMI gauge, i took it back and got the measurement – just prior to going away with the car.
The Audi dealership you use will then report the findings with Audi UK (or your regional main Audi). I was asked various questions about where the car was purchased from and if it was under warranty.
Your service record will also be photocopied and sent across, for me mine was 55K miles and nearly full audi service history – 2 independent garages did a a service, however they were Audi specialists so i assume this helped.
Note: for stage 1 its important you don’t add any oil as this will invalidate your result with Audi
Stage 2 – Piston Repair
After just over a week i was contacted by my dealership that Audi UK have agreed to do the work covering the cost in full. They will get the car in, take engine out strip it all down and replace the pistons, piston rings and con rods. They have said this will take about 3 days.
The cost of this if paying would be about £4000!
Stage 3 – Replacement Engine
If when the engine is stripped down and damage is noticed inside the only option is to replace the engine and this of course will fix the issue.