2002 V6 oil burning

My 2002 Passat (V6) has 32,000 miles and is burning about a quart of oil every 1000 miles. I have had no other engine problems and submit the car to what I would consider normal driving. No leaks or other obvious problems have been found. VW of America is telling me, through my dealer service, that this oil burn rate is "acceptable" and "industry standard," so they won't authorize additional diagnostic or repair. My dealer service is perplexed ("I'm in the industry, and that is NOT standard!") and has asked me to initiate a complaint through central VW customer advocates, which I have done. Does anyone have any relevant thoughts on this and/or how I should proceed? Thanks.

All I can say is that an engine that burns a quart of oil every 1,000 miles is NOT ACCEPTABLE!! I am shocked that any self respecting technician would say such a thing.

In my opinion either it is running a little bit too hot or you have an undiscovered leak.

I wonder if these jerks at VW would find it "acceptable" if their car burned a damn quart of oil every 1,000 miles??

All I can say... If it was my car... VW would be told it had started burning 2 quarts and I had filled it before I went in. I'm sure you can find a way to make sure it is looked at. Get it before warranty runs out because I'm sure it would be unacceptable after the last day of it runs out.

I bought a 2001.5 (same body/eng as 02) preowned certified from a dealer in the boston area.
It was a leased vehicle, had 31,000 mi and was very clean. Having bought it from a dealer, I assumed everything would be OK.
About 2-3 weeks later I was thinking that I should check the oil on the off chance that the dealer may have left it low. In fact it was. It was clean, but low by about 1 qt. I figured that when they changed the oil they must have not accounted for the filter (or something.....hmmmmm).
Went about my business after that and (blindly) thought I was OK.
Then, about the time that my oil change was due (~5k mi), I was "zipping" through my pkg lot and did a quick left/then/right turn pretty aggressively and my OIL light came on and "STOP Engine !" showed on the digital display. Needless to say I was concerned (and pissed). After the engine cooled off, I checked the dip stick. Not a drip on it ! Down about 1.5 qts ! So in about 5k mi after owning the car I've burned (?) about 2.5 qts. Not quite the pace of 1 qt every 1,000 mi, but enough to be disturbing.
When I took it to my local vw dealer to have the oil changed (after I wimped out, following looking under the car), he casually said that it wasn't uncommon to burn that much.
I used to beat the crap out of my 93 passat vr6 with 170,000 and that didn't burn a drop !
Now, I am running a "scientific" experiment by ranking the position of the oil on the dipstick and monitoring the level every Monday on flat surface with the engine cold.
I will track it and get back !
Please post any info you get after going to Corporate

I recently began experiencing the same problem. I had noted that my passat was down about 1 quart after driving 2000 miles. I added oil and checked after about another 500 and the oil was down again. I took mine into the dealer and they had it for 2 days...no results. They could find nothing wrong with it. Dealer claimed that it was within acceptable standards to burn 1/2 to 1 quart after 1000 miles...I'm still searching for an answer on this one.

My Passat was burning oil and it was found to be a very tiny leak of the cam seals (I think that's what the dealer said) it was covered under the 10y 100K powertrain warranty.) The leak was putting oil on the exhaust manifold and burning away at very high temps. There were no signs of leaks otherwise.

I happened to have the car run out of gas (bad fuel level sender) and when I looked under the hood, I saw a small amount of white smoke coming out. It was this symptom that got the dealer looking for the leak.

Anyway, the leak was fixed and didn't cost me a penny!

finally conducted my "scientific experiment and posted a graph in the General Images catagory.
Bottom line for me is ~1 qt every 2000 miles (text on graph says 'every 1K but that was my error). Still not happy.
I will go to the dealer this week for an oil change and complain again, but not sure what else to do.
Any of you have Any luck from corporate ?

My 2002 Passat (V6) has 32,000 miles and is burning about a quart of oil every 1000 miles. I have had no other engine problems and submit the car to what I would consider normal driving. No leaks or other obvious problems have been found. VW of America is telling me, through my dealer service, that this oil burn rate is "acceptable" and "industry standard," so they won't authorize additional diagnostic or repair. My dealer service is perplexed ("I'm in the industry, and that is NOT standard!") and has asked me to initiate a complaint through central VW customer advocates, which I have done. Does anyone have any relevant thoughts on this and/or how I should proceed? Thanks.

I have a similiar problem and my VW dealer has offered no help. They came up with a technical bulletin dated 1992 that says that 0.5 to 0.85 quarts per 1000 miles is within limits. wondering if you have had any luck with VW corporate.

My 2000 V6 (33k miles) has always used about a quart every 3000miles. I'm not sure if its from burning or leaking or both. I have a fair bit of leaking around cam seals - not enough to drip on the floor, just enough to get the motor dirty. Do you guys think I have a case for some warranty work?

I have a better one for you! I have a 2001.5 Passat in wich the VW dealer replaced the engine because around 30K Miles it would burn 1 quart or more of oil for every 1K miles. They replaced the engine becasue they had no clue what was going on and they had waisted about 7 days in troubleshooting. Now I have 57K miles (27K on the new engine) and I am burning oil again!!! Not quite 1 quart per 1K miles but its getting worse!!! VW should be hit by a class action suit!!! With todays gas prices, the last thing I wanna do is add a quart of oil every thousand miles!!! Oh and another thing; once they replaced the engine, I realized that I had lost power with the old engine. I thought it was just me getting used to the cars power. Good Luck to everyone!!!

Dont bash VW. They are teriffic. 203,000 miles,mine still pulls hard, 34-37 mpg avg, and no rattles, & no problems, and I use MOBIL 1 Synthetic. Mines NEVER DOWN. EVER. Period.

The old Passats are completely different cars than the newer ones.

It's like GM's problem with the modular engines ('99-'03) in the trucks & SUV's with their skirtless piston design that ends up with piston slap & oil consumption. At first they said yes it's a problem, until they figured out it was in over 800,000 units. Now they changed the acceptable oil consumption to 3.75 quarts between changes & raised the acceptable engine dB levels. Needless to say they have a class action lawsuit against them.

We've had a 99 Passat and never had problems with it. Sold it with 130k on it and now have a 04 Passat and love it!!

My Passat was burning oil and it was found to be a very tiny leak of the cam seals (I think that's what the dealer said) it was covered under the 10y 100K powertrain warranty.) The leak was putting oil on the exhaust manifold and burning away at very high temps. There were no signs of leaks otherwise.

I happened to have the car run out of gas (bad fuel level sender) and when I looked under the hood, I saw a small amount of white smoke coming out. It was this symptom that got the dealer looking for the leak.

Anyway, the leak was fixed and didn't cost me a penny!


What year is yours? I am worried I will "not have an issue" until 100k mileage is up. What did the dealer say was the issue?

Dont bash VW. They are teriffic. 203,000 miles,mine still pulls hard, 34-37 mpg avg, and no rattles, & no problems, and I use MOBIL 1 Synthetic. Mines NEVER DOWN. EVER. Period.
I don't think you are talking about the same car as we are. No passat gets that kind of fuel mileage; not even the turbo...unless you have a diesel which of course is not what we are talking about. We are specificaly talking about the 2.8L V6 30V engine which is an AUDI engine not the famous 2.8L VR6 engine which was designed and built by VW.
Notice how the 2.8L V6 30V engine was quickly replaced by the 3.0L V6 30V engine in the Audi line up!!! Also notice how VW is now using the famous VR6 engines in the 3.2L and 3.6L versions!!!

\
Notice how the 2.8L V6 30V engine was quickly replaced by the 3.0L V6 30V engine in the Audi line up!!! Also notice how VW is now using the famous VR6 engines in the 3.2L and 3.6L versions!!!

I wouldn t really say "quickly"... the 2.8 v6 audi was on the market for a great while. and I think they are now releasing the 3.0 as an upgrade from the past line of audis (just like the 2.0t instead of 1.8t, and 4.2 s4 instead of 2.7t s4)

the 2.8 v6 consumes oil, but it s still a great engine, very confortable to drive! after all the oil consumtion doesn t affect the peformance much, does it?

was still observing 1/2 - 1 qt every 1000mi. Still not happy with that.
Driving to work the other day, I smelled (literally) trouble.
Upon opening the hood there was smoke from the back of the engine compartment and pressure build up observed when I pulled the dipstick.

Had it towed to the dealer and they diagnosed that the PCV valve and tube were plugged/clogged and that the cam seals were blown.

Not hard for me to believe that the oil burning led to the plugging of the PCV valve which in turn blew up the tubing and the cam seals.

now I'm looking at $1000 to fix all that. Just got off the phone with VW customer service and opened a complaint.

Maybe they'll pay for the fix. I hope that my oil consumption was from leaking at the cam seals vs 'old fashioned' oil burning, otherwise I'm going to keep having this problem

Its the same with V4 Turbo as well. I have a 2002 Turbo and I have put 67000 mi on it. Laterly I have noticed a huge drop in power. I too was thinking this is me getting used to the car. But a week ago I drove a Honda Accord of a friend of mine and after driving that car I feel Passat has no power. It sucks!!!!!

Wow! I do not know whether I should feel relieved that I am not the only one or scared that this is a common problem. Yesterday my 02 passat also told me to STOP after making a sharp turn, I pulled over and it also said I had low oil pressure, I pulled out the dipstick only to discover there was no oil registering. I put in a few quarts and went back to were my car had been parked for the past month while I was traveling and there was no oil on the ground??? I looked underneath the vehicle to see if there were any visible drips and again nothing..I just bought the vehicle about 2500 miles ago when it was at 40K. It had just had an oil change and I drove it about 1500 miles home and then just locally, I had no idea how I could not have any oil left? Unfortunately my warranty just ran out so I am at a loss at what to do. I will keep up with these posts to see what pans out for everyone else..but in the mean time feel free to give me any suggestions. Thanks!

I have just bought an 04 passat atq v6 30v 2.8l with 6500 miles on it. I bought it from an insurance company. Car was involved in a minor front end collision. Insurance had it repaied at some shop where they took it upon themselves to change timing belt. When they put new belt on they messed up. They start the engine and bend valves. They just sold it as is. So I had a german tech friend of mine open up the engine and to my great surprise, the pistons look rusty. This is an engine with only 6500 miles on it. The head gasket was slightly leaking too. The tech thinks that VW is using poor quality oil in their engines or somehow there was humidity in the oil. Although a long shot, this could be what causes the engines to start using oil.

well I got VW to pay for half of the bill (still cost me $570!)
they replaced the blown cam tensioning seals and the PCV valve and tubing
(also replaced a faulty temp coolant sensor....not related to the oil)

however, I just checked the dipstick about one month after the fix....oil level is still dropping. Barely on the last tick mark

I just don't get it !

Also noticed a yellow frothy sludge at the top part of the dipstick. Not sure what that's all about

I guess I'll have to keep a case of oil in the trunk and top it off with every 2nd or 3rd gas fill up.....just like grampa used to do back in the 30's.

so much for advancing the technology

Ok I believe i have this figured. I actually contacted somebody who works in VW germany. He says it is quite normal for these engines to eat up anywhere from 3/4 quart to 1 n1/4 quart every 2000 miles. He justified this by the fact that these engines have too many parts in motion and do consume oil due to excessive friction. So now I know to keep some oil in the trunk.

thanks for checking all the way back to Deutchland !
However,I am a mechanical engineer, and while I appreciate lots of moving parts, I don't buy the fact that they can't or won't build something that doesn't burn (yes burn) oil.
There are plenty of other automakers that build high quality engines with just as many moving parts as VW's, that don't burn oil (Honda comes to mind)

sorry to be pissy about it

I am having the same problem with my car as well, its an 02 with only 66k on it. The oil pressure light will come on every so often and oil will be low. The car also has trouble starting every so often and when it does it will smoke some white smoke. I believe it is burning somewhere that it can get into the exhaust? I haven't taken it in anywhere because I don't want to pay out a lot of money. Love the car but not happy with the oil it burns mostly how much I paid for the car.