Tips and tricks for a MY12.5 Polo GTI owner

[sineadredding]

Hi all,
My husband had a 2011 Polo GTI a few years ago and i fell in love. We sold it a few years back and when it was time to sell my old mazda recently I decided to get a newer 2013 Polo GTI MY12.5 to replace it. I did a bit of research beforehand knowing there was the dreaded oil consumption issue and the DSG shudder and my research (which was probably not adequate in hindsight) suggested most problems had been sorted from the MY12 and above.
Had my MY12.5 for a month now (30,000kms on the clock) and I've had the oil light come on 2 times (approx 3,000kms driving) and the shudder at low revs is there. I'm slowly replacing the oil that the dealer put in (unknown) with Penrite enviro+ 5W-40 as per some forum posts. Im checking the oil weekly now to avoid the light coming on. Using 98 fuel.
I guess I just wanted to get some advice on if theres anything else you guys would suggest? Im not planning on any mods or anything, I just highway drive mostly. Im female and don't have any grand plans for the car, I just want to make sure I look after it and avoid any major issues. Have read the sticky thread on this forum about the known issues but cant say I understood much.
Any tips are appreciated
Cheers

[The One]

Hi all,
My husband had a 2011 Polo GTI a few years ago and i fell in love. We sold it a few years back and when it was time to sell my old mazda recently I decided to get a newer 2013 Polo GTI MY12.5 to replace it. I did a bit of research beforehand knowing there was the dreaded oil consumption issue and the DSG shudder and my research (which was probably not adequate in hindsight) suggested most problems had been sorted from the MY12 and above.
Had my MY12.5 for a month now (30,000kms on the clock) and I've had the oil light come on 2 times (approx 3,000kms driving) and the shudder at low revs is there. I'm slowly replacing the oil that the dealer put in (unknown) with Penrite enviro+ 5W-40 as per some forum posts. Im checking the oil weekly now to avoid the light coming on. Using 98 fuel.
I guess I just wanted to get some advice on if theres anything else you guys would suggest? Im not planning on any mods or anything, I just highway drive mostly. Im female and don't have any grand plans for the car, I just want to make sure I look after it and avoid any major issues. Have read the sticky thread on this forum about the known issues but cant say I understood much.
Any tips are appreciated
Cheers

Sell it

[Kachingg]

I have to agree if the motor is using that much oil i would be concerned also the dsg shudder is a worry

My wife had the 1.6 diesel polo and fingers crossed no issues but if your car had a hard/bad driver you could be up for some costs
Remember to drive the dsg like a manual not a auto i find that is the cause of a lot of issues with the 7 speed dry clutch dsg
People use them as a normal auto creaping at lights and in heavy traffic, holding car on accelerator on hills intead of using the brake ect and generate to much heat which causes damage as the dry clutch cant absorb hardly any extra heat without issues
we have 4 of them in the family but i have taught my womenfolk(got 3 daughters) how to drive them and no issues so far

good luck

[sineadredding]

Well that is not good news. I was content to keep an eye on it and top up the oil, but If you think its going to cost me big time in the long run... thanks for your replies, food for thought

[Sydneykid]

You need to monitor and record exactly how much oil you are actually puting in over how many kilometres. Armed with that data. my suggestion would be to drop the oil, change the filter and refill it with Nulon 5W40 Euro Spec. Then after 1000 k's take a sample of the oil and send it to Nulon for testing. They will then give you an independent laboratory's report on what they find. Your local Nulon outlet should be able to help with the test kit and the cost, which is quite reasonable. We carry out this process on the race car engines after every 10 to 12 hours of running.

In addition I would have your local workshop carry out a leak down test which will confirm if there is any weakness in the piston rings sealing. If that proves not to be the reason for the oil consumption then I'd be looking for an external reason for the usage, leaking turbo seal, blocked PCV valve etc.


Cheers
Gary

[sineadredding]

Thanks Gary, The car is booked in at VW for an oil consumption test next week so if that fails to give me answers I will give the Nulon test a go. I'm also tracking the kms from full until the light comes on at the moment as a rudimentary test. I'm tempted to ask them to replace the piston rings anyway and am considering a DSG and ECU tune too. But I'll take it one step at a time to see if we can pin point the problem. Thanks again, I appreciate the thoughts