PCV Replacement solved oil problem

[pitchs4]

I figured it was worth posting up the success I had with replacing my PCV and solving an oil "consumption" problem. My car had never lost a drop of oil and I check it about weekly. Suddenly one day I was down about 2 lines on the dipstick (I check it dead cold when it has sat overnight). I panicked as any B6 S4 owner would and spent a good portion of that day scaring the crap out of myself reading other posts on here and AZ.

I checked it regularly over the next few days and it didn't move at all until a week or so later it was down about the same amount. I ending up adding a half-quart in the course of about 600 miles however the actual depletion seemed sporadic and inconsistent with miles. It would be fine for a few days (approx 30miles a day) then down a line on the dipstick in the course of 1 day. I figured/hoped it had to do somehow with blow-by burning off when the right conditions were met.

Long story short, after some research I picked up a PCV from JHM and installed it. It has been about 5k miles since and I haven't lost a drop. I had read a few places that the PCV may be the cause for the loss of oil, so I wanted to confirm this as true, and suggest it as a regular maintenance item. My car now has 78k and FWIW I spent the extra $ and got the OEM valve.

[norcal]

this proved to be a red herring for me but hope it works for you, I posted a similarly sounding thread to yours back in may or so I think.

I'm now burning about 2 quarts per 1k miles due to worn valve seals

[pitchs4]

Your post was one of the few that prompted me to try it and it did work for me (that is why I posted). Haven't lost a drop since I did it 5,000 miles ago.

[norcal]

that's awesome

it's nice when a potentially scary thing can turn out to be something so simple

[dparm]

I'm now burning about 2 quarts per 1k miles due to worn valve seals

I'd start looking for an oil that can deal with seal swell. Some are better than others. What oil has the car seen over the course of its life?

[norcal]

not sure what was used before me (dealer service) but I used lubro for the first 30k I owned it but just switched to rotella for the last 10k. So that's 0-80k dealer service (castrol?), then lubro up to 110k, and now rotella (120k now)

[audi49]

Mike... sounds like you replaced the PCV valve yourself. It looks difficult to get at, in terms of removing it and replacing it. Any hints? Thanks in advance.

[Joey]

Mike... sounds like you replaced the PCV valve yourself. It looks difficult to get at, in terms of removing it and replacing it. Any hints? Thanks in advance.

It is easy. Located right on the back of the manifold. You just need to remove a few one-time clamps to pull it off

[audi49]

OK. thanks. Just seems like a couple of those clamps are hard to get to, and that the PCV may be hard to pull out of there. And then getting clamps back on... Thanks.

[pitchs4]

Yeah it is pretty straight forward just have some new clamps since you will need to break the one-time use (oem) clamps to get it off. It is very tight and I had to move a few things out of the way but it took me a little over an hour and I work really slow.