2.0T GDI engines and oil consumption

[David Bee]

I took my 2020 2.0T in for its first oil change today. I took it in early, just over 3,000 miles, because I’m concerned that it’s a half quart down on oil since I bought it. The service writer told me straight up that all GDI engines burn oil, usually a full quart between oil changes, and not to worry because this is completely normal.
Really? I’ve searched the google machine and can’t find anything about GDI engines burning oil. What is your experience with this engine and have you heard this also?

 

[Spaceme17]

Most cars I have owned that had GDI engines did not "burn" any oil. GDI engines definitely are known for building up of carbon deposits on the valves.

Most car companies have allowed amounts of oil being "burned" between oil changes. 1/2 a quart down between oil changes is not too bad but I also think that no engine should lose much oil at all.

Best thing to do is document this over the next few oil changes and if it gets worse over time then there is definitely a problem.

Oil usage is commonly caused by 2 things; PCV system and cylinder/piston ring blow-by. Sometimes the PCV system on a car will go through multiple revisions to reduce oil consumption (early LS engines had several PCV revisions). Cylinder/Piston ring blow-by can be caused by scored cylinders or bad piston rings.

 

[David Bee]

Ok thank you. By pcv revision, do you mean like a recall where you bring the car in and they swap out a part? Or is this something that that the computer will compensate for over time and correct?

 

[oddball]

The only notable oil burning scenario I know of is the first gen Volvo GDI engines, but that's because they messed up the design of the piston rings.
Nothing in the GDI part of the engine has anything to do with oil consumption.

A full quart in 5,000 miles is *a lot*.

Revision here means new parts with a different design.

The PCV on this engine seems to be pretty decent. An oil catch can always helps, but for normal driving, it appears they did a pretty good job. So it's possible your engine has excessive blow-by, the PCV screen material isn't doing its job, there's some internal issue, or you just had a really heavy foot. Running @ WOT forces a whole lot more blow-by than normal driving - just part of how the engine works. So you'll always have more oil being pushed out the PCV system when driving hard compared to just cruising.

 

[David Bee]

The only notable oil burning scenario I know of is the first gen Volvo GDI engines, but that's because they messed up the design of the piston rings.
Nothing in the GDI part of the engine has anything to do with oil consumption.

A full quart in 5,000 miles is *a lot*.

Revision here means new parts with a different design.

The PCV on this engine seems to be pretty decent. An oil catch can always helps, but for normal driving, it appears they did a pretty good job. So it's possible your engine has excessive blow-by, the PCV screen material isn't doing its job, there's some internal issue, or you just had a really heavy foot. Running @ WOT forces a whole lot more blow-by than normal driving - just part of how the engine works. So you'll always have more oil being pushed out the PCV system when driving hard compared to just cruising.

This is all excellent information thanks. I’m going to continue to monitor it, along with all my fluids, and if it gets worse I’ll bring up these points with the dealer on one of its inspections.

For now I’m hoping it’s a combination of car break in period and driver break in period, as I drove it pretty hard (finding its limits).

 

[Spaceme17]

Ok thank you. By pcv revision, do you mean like a recall where you bring the car in and they swap out a part? Or is this something that that the computer will compensate for over time and correct?

I haven't read of any PCV revisions requiring a recall. Most recalls seem to be mainly for potential safety issues.

PCV revisions are usually done on cars each year. For example, on the C5 Corvette, they made subsequent PCV and valve cover baffle revisions so that less oil was getting past the PCV system.

Something else you could try, would be to install an oil catch can. Then monitor how much oil you are getting in the can at 500 or 1000 mile intervals. This could tell you if oil is getting past the PCV system or not.