Some advice needed please s4 v8

[TURBOTRONICS]

The oil light came on tonight which is not out of the ordinary as it seems to use oil
This time when i took the oil cap off there seems to be a little mayo starting to collect on the cap and the water seems a little muggy to
Are these engines prone to head gaskets going ?
I carnt find much on the net about them being prone
Any advice would help

 

[quattrojames]

I'm no V8 expert, but they're certainly not prone to head gaskets I don't think. What sorts of trips do you do with it?

 

[MDA]

sounds like short trip syndrome
my old A3 suffered with it and my A4 1.8 has a little too

 

[TURBOTRONICS]

yes it only dose 1 mile a day during the week and only a few at weekend

 

[quattrojames]

I'd think thats the problem then, can you change the oil and take it for a nice trip?

 

[TURBOTRONICS]

i think thats a good idea i will probably try that at the weekend

 

[TURBOTRONICS]

just as a matter of interest what oil should i put in it

 

[BASS 666]

if your car is using oil dont use fully synthetic get some good semi synthetic. your oil light coming on is really bad and should be looked into right away. the car will be using water if its the head gasket. open your water bottle and have a sniff. water dosent smell so if you smell oil or exaust gasses thats a good sign its ******. my mates 1,8 turbo a4 was using a lot of oil and i stripped it and changed the rings, valve stem oil seals and oil pump. it cured it but was very costly so good luck mate..

 

[dsmclark40v]

I just changed my oil for some 5w40 and its so smooth now and no start up rattle. I also found out at the previous service (3k ago) they didn't change the oil filter as the old one was in a horrible state! (thanks again kartechnics)

I'm not sure about using the semi synthetic if audi specify the fully synthetic. as its a high performance engine it isn't going to like just doing under 1 mile a day nore are your catalytic converters. you need to get the engine up to temperature. People on the audizine and Euroaddiction reckon that the s4 engine isn't fully lubricated until after around 20 minutes after starting. so maybe change your oil and flush and change the coolant and take if for a long run. and if you suspect head gasket then maybe get a compression test as well. Also if my commute every day was 1 mile I'd walk it or ride my bike...

And mine uses 1L of oil every 1,500 miles. Also when changing the oil make sure you have a big container to catch the oil it comes out fast! Hopefully its not your head gasket as that requires an engine pull

 

[BASS 666]

fully synthetic oil is like water if an engine is using oil it will use f s like mad.

 

[paul20v]

fully synthetic oil is like water if an engine is using oil it will use f s like mad.

Dependes on the grade of oil fully synthetic is available in a wide range of viscosity i have some Fully synthetic 10/50 race oil in one of my cars and thats far from thin
theres no way i would leave fully synthetic for semi in car thats designed to run full
it sounds to me like the S4 needs using more with so little use all your doing is killing it as you would with any engine with so little use and only short runs
it will never be running right it will always be rich this will wash bores and also mix the excess fuel with the oil and ruin it and the engine .

 

[BASS 666]

no disrespect to the guy with the bad engine if my oil light came on i would **** myself.what i ment by putting semi in his engine was he dosent sound too fussed so he might aswell use semi and then he wont have to buy as much oil cause when you buy fully its like water unless you ask for the thicker stuff. maybe im wrong ?

 

[TURBOTRONICS]

when i say the oil light comes on its the oil level warning on the dash and when i check the dip stick the oil it at half way
it takes about 1L of oil to top it back up and will last 6 to 8 weeks before the light comes back on
as for as Journeys my wife uses the car in the week and she works about 1 mile away but at the weekends i use it and do about 20 to 30 miles over the weekend some of them are hard miles to

so what oil should i use
i did notice a mention of start up rattle and mine suffers from that to if there is anything i can do about that

 

[BASS 666]

mate im a mechanic and i advise people who have cars that burn oil to use semi instead of fully but thats just my opinion. if your car has a taste off blue smoke out the back well its burning oil if not it could be that your turbo is letting a drop of oil throuhg it which is normal. my car has 120000 miles on it and i can honestly say it uses no oil but then again i got my turbo reconditioned and the car has had an oil chahge every 10000 miles from new. if you have noises and the car uses oil maybe its time to get it checked over by someone.