Please add oil (max 1 L)

Phill_

Phill_

Audi S4
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Well after 4000 miles my S4 is asking me to top up my oil :(

I am in no way mechanically minded!

I have a 3 year old bottle of oil still sealed that I got with my DIESEL Q3 in 2013. It's pictured below, is this ok to bung in??? (Age and type)

Does it matter if the engine already has different oil in it from the factory? I.e. Mixing this into an unknown type?

I'm panicing because I don't want to break anything!

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The ideal would be a 5w-40 oil rated to VW 502.00 standard however 5w-30 is an acceptable alternative.
 
Odd. I've never put oil in my S4 in 11k miles but that will be fine. The VW 504 is the key bit. Manual...

IMG 20160606 181003197 HDR
 
Or some people play safe and use 5W-30 oils suitable for VAG flexible servicing even for fixed servicing - like the main dealers do to avoid confusion. That oil will do the job very nicely even if it is "getting on" in age - it will not be in use for too long will it?

Have you ever considered getting a dipstick for your car - sorry if you have one already, that way even if you are not mechanically minded, you can keep an eye on the oil level maybe weekly.

Edit:- my S4 does not need oil between servicing either - maybe your car had been "short filled" at its last service? (Having a dipstick would have pointed that out)

Next Edit:- I've just re-read your initial posting and it looks like your car is still on its original factory fill of oil, how old is that car?
 
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It's was new in September 2015 and only done 4000 miles, I mainly drive it short journeys and drive it quite hard when it's warmed up :)

I'm just worried about mixing oils if it even matters???
 
No no issue with mixing oils as that oil - even if it was new, is the same as Audi used at the factory - well that is what they would have you believe as the oil filler cap has "Castrol" branding on it!

I never use my S4 for short journeys - but I have other cars available for that - so maybe that is why you are using some oil, my annual mileage is quite low - 20.5K for a Feb 2011 car!!
 
502.00 5W40 is a lesser quality oil and a meaningless fraction thicker .

Data sheets...
 
Without yet topping up, it's now showing ok?!?!? Yet on the way home from work it was telling me to top up... Weird!
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Ah, time for plan B - buy a dipstick, seeing is believing, normally I make a mess of checking oil level with the MMI and get shown a lower than "is" reading.

So, as a minimum, tip in 0.5Ltr of that oil and see how things go for now?
 
Just a thought but all new S4s I've seen came with a litre of top up oil. Wonder why yours didn't. As @rum4mo says 5w30 is supposedly the factory fill so will be fine.
 
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Hi Phill

My S4 did the same thing as your about 3/4K into ownership. When it happened i was only a couple of miles from my dealer. I took it straight into them and to be fair to Southend Audi they took it straight off me and checked the oil manually. The oil level wasn't fair short from the top mark of there dip stick.

I booked it in to be checked over and they came back with a faulty oil level sensor, it was changed and haven't had a problem since.

I would just get audi to check before adding oil as to much may cause even more problems.
 
@Phill_ - for reference my S5 used zero oil in about 4200 miles/12 months (about half of that short journeys). Now whilst Audi have written in the manual that their engines can 'use' oil between the factory fill and the first change, why would there be such a variation?

If your car gave a low level warning but then showed a higher level* then perhaps the post by @Sluggy007 could be pertinent. If you haven't topped it up yet then I suggest you don't but instead get it booked into a dealer to be checked. There is another warning about oil overfill and if you are not mechanically minded then for sure you won't want to deal with that!

I tried to resist the temptation to buy a dipstick and persevered with the MMI display but in the end I bought one for peace of mind (it's always good to have a second opinion :))

*Was that under the same circumstance, i.e. with the engine warm and on level ground?
 
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Bristle Hound said:
@scotty76 - Yup. Mine did. They come from the factory with a litre bottle of top up oil. Looks like some Dealers aren't passing it on ...
I'm on my 4th new A4/S4 in the last 14 years and all 4 have come with a litre of top up oil
Click to expand...

I didn't get one but then since I negotiated a very good discount on the purchase I guess they decided that I should get no extra 'freebies' and I wasn't inclined to argue about it. As it turns out, as I noted above, a free bottle of top-up oil would be useless to me anyway!
 
Dippy said:
I didn't get one but then since I negotiated a very good discount on the purchase I guess they decided that I should get no extra 'freebies' and I wasn't inclined to argue about it. As it turns out, as I noted above, a free bottle of top-up oil would be useless to me anyway!
Click to expand...
@Dippy - The litre bottle of top up oil isn't a freebie. It comes as standard with the car from the factory my friend :thumbs up:
 
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No warnings today, all seems fine and I didn't top up... I'll take it to Audi if it happens again.
 
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Bristle Hound said:
@Dippy - The litre bottle of top up oil isn't a freebie. It comes as standard with the car from the factory my friend :thumbs up:
Click to expand...

Not if you but from Listers group it seems!
My last 3 new cars haven't had an oil top-up pack, when I questioned this I was told it's a dealer thing, not an Audi thing. I've never gone round to takes this up with Audi CS...but I will next time!
 
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Bristle Hound said:
@Dippy - The litre bottle of top up oil isn't a freebie. It comes as standard with the car from the factory my friend :thumbs up:
Click to expand...

Keef said:
Not if you but from Listers group it seems!
My last 3 new cars haven't had an oil top-up pack, when I questioned this I was told it's a dealer thing, not an Audi thing. I've never gone round to takes this up with Audi CS...but I will next time!
Click to expand...

My dealer is part of the Jardine Motors group.

I went to see my car twice. Once so that I could do my own PDI (I previously had a bad experience when I bought a car through a German dealer so I decided to be safe rather than sorry this time), and then the second time when the car was ready so I could pay and drive away. My first visit was literally an hour or so after the car had come off the transporter and the dealer has done nothing to it. It had all the protective covering on both the exterior and interior. There was no bottle of oil in the car. Now whilst I accept that maybe in that hour or so someone at the dealer made the effort to remove the bottle of oil before I arrived, I find it hard to believe. Even if it was practice for the dealer to remove the bottles from delivered cars I'd imagine that it would happen as part of the PDI process. So as much as I respect you @Bristle Hound , I don't think you are right here.

Notwithstanding that - I truly don't care if I was conned out of my bottle of oil :)
 
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Ha ha I'm sure when I got my first B8 back in 2008, there was similar stories with the ami iPod/usb leads.
You had to pay then as they were not indlcuded in the Ami cost, but the leads were vanishing when cars were at the port so they became dealer supply items! Maybe the same for the oil packs. I guess as I got such a massive discount on my current car the dealer thought, I'm not giving him the oil lol.
 
I'd think that most of what people think is placed in the car at the factory, really only gets put in the car at or after the PDI. I know that all manufacturers are not doing the same things but, I do know that Ford dealers basically just add the paperwork to each car at post PDI and they didn't really care if the paperwork was the latest, so I usually had to go back in and annoy them until I got the paperwork that was intended for my build date of car. They were basically using up the paperwork packs as the cars went through the showroom, then moving on to the next batch of paperwork packs - a bit like grocer stock rotation!
 
Anyone know how much it costs for a dipstick for the B8 S4??
 
Theres one or 2 listed on ebay, or a part numbre flying round. No idea on the compatability though.

I just bought one for my 2012 2.0TDI off eBay. £40, but its cheaper than running out of oil.
 
@big eck I'd recommend that you use the ASN parts request. Great service and often the cheapest price too.
 
Top up warning came on again yesterday, so I've put 0.5L in and will continually monitor the levels via the MMI - If still lower than Max I will add a bit more.
 
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