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Hi,

I was hoping anyone could help me with this issue. Yesterday i was driving home when the oil level light turned on and i had a message on the dash to check the oil level. I have this car since March and when i bought it from a VW service card dealership they told me that the next oil change would be in one year or 15.000km and i've done around 5.000km since i have it. I checked the car oil level this morning after the engine cooled off all night and the level is roughly 1/4 of the oil level. Also the oil is very dark brown.

I left a piece of cardboard under the card all night and in the morning it was clean so the car is not leaking oil, at least not underneath, and after i turned on the car 10m ago the oil level light turned off without doing anything besides checking the oil level.

Do you think they tricked me when saying that they did an oil change before delivering the car to me and that the oil actually needs to be replaced or do you think there is something else at play here? Would 5.000km be enough for the card to complain about the oil level? The car came with VW 3 year warranty so im also keen to know if its something that it would cover or if i should take the car back to them to be checked since i find odd that the light simply disappeared.
Any help would be great

PS: I've also read somewhere that the light can turn on when the oil is running too hot i actually checked it when it happened and it was at 89ºc

Thanks.

I had to top my car oil up after owning the car for 6-8 months, but I just presumed it was from my style of driving. If your oil level is within the Min/Max you should be fine, otherwise feel free to call VW and see what they say.

VW always used to state in the owner’s manual that it’s normal for a car’s engine to consume some oil. The figure they stated was up to 1 litre of oil per 1000 kilometres, so if oil consumption is less than this, then VW are very unlikely to do anything other than tell you it’s within what they consider to be acceptable.

I not in a position to check my owner’s manual just now to see if the above figures have been revised, but I suspect they haven’t.

IMHO it’s always good practice to be proactive rather than reactive and carry out regular under-bonnet fluid level checks on a regular basis (I do mine - and also check the tyre pressures - when I wash my car which is usually every 10-14 days). By checking regularly, you’ll be aware if anything needs topping up and be able to do it in advance of a warning light telling you it needs doing, and it only takes a few minutes to do the checks.

SRGTD wrote: Sun May 07, 2023 4:52 pm VW always used to state in the owner’s manual that it’s normal for a car’s engine to consume some oil. The figure they stated was up to 1 litre of oil per 1000 kilometres, so if oil consumption is less than this, then VW are very unlikely to do anything other than tell you it’s within what they consider to be acceptable.

I not in a position to check my owner’s manual just now to see if the above figures have been revised, but I suspect they haven’t.

IMHO it’s always good practice to be proactive rather than reactive and carry out regular under-bonnet fluid level checks on a regular basis (I do mine - and also check the tyre pressures - when I wash my car which is usually every 10-14 days). By checking regularly, you’ll be aware if anything needs topping up and be able to do it in advance of a warning light telling you it needs doing, and it only takes a few minutes to do the checks.

Yea you are right it’s a lot better to be proactive. This is my first car so I’m still learning a lot of things. The mais reason I asked is because I’m afraid the car might have any issues and in case it does I want to know before the 3 year warranty ends. The light turned on again and after checking the oil level sits nearly at the minimum. I called the seller which told to me to go to the dealership and they would top up the oil and that it could be burning a bit more than usual since its new which I find odd since the car has nearly 50.000km. Upon checking this online I found that there are some really bad reasons that could cause this like and it feels like they are trying to solve it easily instead of looking into it. I think it’s also odd that they informed they that the oil was changed before giving me the car and just in 5.000 km the oil is dark brown and you can’t even through it. My driving style is really relaxed and I very really go at high speeds, however I never had a VW so I don’t know if that’s how their engines behave