EA288 184hp 2.0 Diesel - Oil Burning - your findings?

[piggasinnaris]

So as most of you know, the EA288 engine (Euro 6 2.0 diesel) in 184hp guise has a bad habit of burning oil. This is rife across all VWAG marques fitted with this engine and the general consensus is, this is due to poorly designed piston rings. The only real proper fix is a full engine teardown and rebuild which is of course, extreme and expensive. It doesn't seem to affect any of the lower powered engines, and this thread is explicitly referring to oil burning. Not oil leakage from crankshaft seals or the like.

So thought I'd start a thread asking your specific findings and what you've done as there seems to be a huge variation in peoples 'fixes' and how effective they are. To be clear, I know none of these are actual fixes, just sticking plasters so to speak.

What I've heard/seen so far:
Genuine SEAT oil filter reduced oil consumption
Changing to 5w40 reduced oil consumption
Changing to 0w30 reduced oil consumption
A regular 'Italian tune up' reduced oil consumption
Changing to Castrol EDGE reduced oil consumption
Changing to Millers racing oil reduced oil consumption
Deleting DPF reduced oil consumption
Oil flush reduced oil consumption

Obviously some of the above make no sense but this is what I've seen online, so what have you found? The more detail in your answer the better.

Mine: 2016 FR DSG with 86k miles. Only started burning oil after an emissions recall last year. Have tried changing the oil to Castrol Edge C3 5w30 FS, made no difference. Tried several brands of oil filters, made no difference. Bought Liqui Moly oil flush pre change, made no difference. Not been paying too much attention to the amount of oil burning but I estimate about 500ml every 2k miles, ish.

 

[SuperV8]

Not been paying too much attention to the amount of oil burning but I estimate about 500ml every 2k miles, ish.

For any oil consumption issue - you need to know this. How do you know you have an issue if you are not monitoring this?
Keep a log of any oil added and the mileage.

The VAG 'allowance' is 0.5L per 1000km. - so 0.8L per 1000miles. To be clear I think this is too high but this is what VAG say - so this could be our worst case limit!

I have a 2015 184 EA288 Euro 5 (140,000miles) - I have been keeping an oil log since 2022 and i'm averaging 0.31L per 1000miles - though it swings from 0.16L/1000miles to 0.35L/1000miles seems to depend on use.
Your 0.5L per 2000miles is equal to 0.25L per 1000 miles, so not too different.

I have tried different oil brands of both 0w30 and 5w30 (All 507 approved) and couldn't see any meaningful difference.
I changed my PCV which I couldn't really detect any improvement - though this has helped some people.