16V burns quart of oil per 1000miles

[worldcyclist@earthlink.net (worldcyclist)]

Hey Marko,

For comarison I have a 91 Alfa Romeo 164 (3.0L) and it consumes maybe a 1/3 qt per 1000 miles. Most of it leaks out. Since changing to full syn oil, the
tailpipe smoking at start-up has totally stopped. It took a few weeks, but surprisingly it stopped. Even when blipping the throttle a bit when cold it still
doesn't smoke.

Of course i'm also on an Alfa digest and a lot of people who own these cars report burning 1qt/1000miles.  This is accepted by the majority of people as
normal.  For a car costing almost 3x what the Jetta did, I'd expect a tighter engine....but they leak, burn oil just like any other car. Sure are sweet to
drive, though.

But there are a couple aspect to consider, I think.  Conventional oils evaporate quickly when over the "ideal" temp of 180F, and this can contribute greatly to
oil loss. Ever take your oil cap off after turning a hot engine off? You'll always see steam-- oil evaporation.

VW's run hot, they do so to keep emissions down, but consequently wear out sooner than what we sometimes expect-- this applies to the Alfa i have too. VW did
put on a oil cooler -- heat exchanger - on the 16V's, but it often is not adequate.  My stock 16 ran very hot and pinged, until putting in lower temp fan switch
and T-stat.  After putting in Mobil 1 syn, the car would go months w/o putting any oil in it. (if you want cheap syn oil it works okay, but it's not really
worth it-- does not have extended drain capability like Redline and Amsoil).

Point being if the car is not smoking heavily from the tailpipe, it's probably evaporating the other portion of the missing oil.  Do a compression test to
verify static pressure. Make sure you hold the throttle completely open, when doing it.

Now, my 3 cents about VW burning oil.  I've owned water pumpers for over 13yrs, and i've never had one burn that much oil, usually hardly none (effects from
evaporation only i think). None of them smoked either, and should not have, due to the low miles.  I once bought a nice rocco 8V from a nicekorean guy in SF,
California  with only 53,000 miles on it. Ran like a new car.  I've also had some higher mileage ones, too.

 Living here in Oregon w/o emmisions testing, i see awful smoking cars on a daily basis.  There are too many of them, and hate to think other people will
consider driving a smoking auto w/o caring about it's impact. If the car is smoking please consider rebuilding/replacing the engine.

Good luck with the purchase!

Gary
80 Callaway Scirocco
87 16V Scirocco (For Sale)
91 Alfa 164L 3.0 5spd
76 Eagle 05 RV bus conversion 40', 9.3L diesel (for sale) Even the bus doesn't burn hardly any oil and engine/trans is big as a rabbit!

Marko Latrell wrote:

> There is a nice clean 84 Jetta FS on vortex, the car has 300k miles and the engine/tranny has 200k.
>
> I am thinking about buying it. The seller is pretty straightforward and told me that it burns some oil. A quart for every 1000miles is not that bad, right ?
>
> check it out, its a white 4 door GLi. We never got 2 door GLis in the States ?
>
> I think that he took good care of it, and I might buy it on Sat.
>
> thanks and lemme know what you think of it pls.
>
> Marko
> ---
> 87 Scirocco 8v
>
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