Oil pressure warning light!

[Steve B]

Advise needed,

Driving into work this morning my oil pressure warning light came on, then goes off for a couple of minutes then back on again.
I pulled over checked the oil, level was good and no signs of a leak.
carried on into work, but light keeps coming on then goes off.
Car is 1.8t and has done 104k now,

is it time for a new oil pump or could it but something else?

Can you prove it is the pump, without stripping it out?

any advise welcome!

Steve.

 

[Macduff]

Don't drive it any further until it's thoroughly checked.

Could be the "sludge" problem that the Americans talk about. This cause the oil strainer to become blocked. I think this can be resolved relatively easily by dropping the sump.

 

[J7USS]

Do a search on this on here, there are a few going through the same now.
As stated, dont drive it if you can and get it checked asap. A £300 - £400 job could turn into £3000+ if you aint careful...

 

[Nickynibbles]

Oh lordy, DO NOT DRIVE IT OR START THE ENGINE ELSE IT COULD BE FATAL! Sorry for the caps but need to make that clear! As Macduff has aluded yo you have the symptom 1st seen by those unfortunate enough to have a 1.8T engine go poof on them because of an oil sludge blocking the lubrication of the head causing a twisted pile of scrap metal. Get the car towed/transported to your nearest friendly garage to have the sump taken off & cleaned out as well as the oil pick up pipe changed. Might as well have the oil pump, cambelt & water pump changed while your at it as the car will be in pieces anyway so will cost pennies extra for this to be done! It'll also need to have the engine flushed to clear any blockages that might be elsewhere in the oil pathways. It'll be costing £600-800 rough guess for all that work at an independant as cant see it being more than 1/2 a days work, more obviously with Audi. Much cheaper than £3-4k for a new engine.

 

[ScottyP45]

I got away with a flush and oil change. Use only synthetic oil and never EVER top it up with any other kind - it is beleived that mixing of synthetic oil with any amount - even a trace - of mineral oil causes the oil to break down and form black sludge.

Audi should put on bright red letters on the engine saying "FULLY SYNTHETIC OIL ONLY!!! USE OF ANY MINERAL OILS WHATSOEVER WILL CAUSE EXTENSIVE ENGINE DAMAGE!!!"

Most people eventually notice the oil is a bit low, and buy halfrauds or petrol station oil and dont know what kind it is, then top up the car and later it goes bang.

FULLY SYNTH ONLY AT ALL TIMES

I hope everyone who might be affected, got that - lol

 

[aragorn]

I'd do a diesel flush on it before doing anything else, you might get away with it, however it might be an idea to get the pump changed anyway as a precaution, especially if its a high mileage engine.

 

[G4JSG]

This happened to me 3 weeks ago, last weekend i got my car back after and engine rebuild and new turbo, clutch too, totalling £3k.

1.8t seems to be a great engine but if it goes wrong your ********. I have full audi service history and still had this problem. My engine needed a new crank, turbo, con rods, oil pump and was then overhauled to a new state so I hope it will last another 100000 miles now.

 

[J7USS]

This is getting far to common, when mine went couple yr ago it was only the yanks suffering but now im reading and hearing of this happening on TT's aswell.

WTF Audi, should I have bought a Datsun!!

 

[ScottyP45]

aye, that Skyline 350GT is looking better every day j7uss!

 

[J7USS]

aye, that Skyline 350GT is looking better every day j7uss!

You know what evil, I never used to like it but like you say mate, its looking more appealing now.
If I had the money though think it would be either the 2.0t B7 or the Golf edition 30 in silver...

 

[aragorn]

imo its a combination of factors, crap oil and bad servicing can cause the oil to sludge up and the inevitable happens, blocked pickup and no oil pressure.

Theres also the issue of high mileage, it seems that on these engines the first thing to fail with a high mileage motor is the oil pump, it doesnt just pack up, but gets weak and eventually problems occur.

Our B5 1.8T is on 173k miles and its oil pump is a bit weak, i dont really want to spend the money on such a high mileage engine however and i've noticed that as long as the oil level is at the max line, the pressure seems acceptable. If the oil level drops below about half way on the dipstick it starts to tick when idling and if it gets to the min line it sounds like a Ford Valencia.

I change the oil every 5k, as i find that its by that point the oil goes black, and i dont want black oil in my engine. If others want to run the engine to the full 10k service interval then thats fine, but when it sludges up your the one paying for the repairs, and a gallon of oil is £20...

 

[ScottyP45]

what got me was mine was serviced fully in april, I was waiting at the dealership to take it away, and the oil was new cos i checked it on a clean hanky from the dipstick. The car ran like a top for about 6 months until it started to tick while idling and when I checked the oil level, it was at the min mark, traced loss to a cracked dipstick tube, which I replaced. On checking the oil colour on a bit of kitchen roll it was black and sticky, so that gave me the heebies and I went straight out and got flush, synth oil and a filter & sump bolt.

Since the change the engine has been sweet, ive done 3k since the oil change but the level hasnt dropped and its still a goldy colour so looks good there.

There is no doubt that the turbo on these motors is in the hottest position possible and the oil that passes through the bearing tunnel will be super heated and crap oil will just turn to tar in those conditions.

I will use wynns flush with each oil change and as soon as the oil turns dark brown it gets dumped and changed so that its always fresh.

Funny though, when I was a fresh faced lad and drove my motley collection of cortinas / avengers / golfs / datsuns etc, they got absolute death from the minute I started the engine and were driven like a stolen scooby in macclesfield, no servicing what so ever and I never had a broken engine, ever. One escort 1.6 mk2 OHV blew a core plug from frozen water in the system, and we used it for short journeys for another week with no water in and in the dead of winter, and it still didnt break!

I did replace the core plug eventually but it survived without a scratch. I know modern turbo motors are finnicky and tightly toleranced but it just shows how simpler engineering is always more reliable.

Even in a ****** ford

 

[aragorn]

Modern engines are in a much higher state of tune than old cars like you mention though, which means they're much harder on things like the engine oil!

 

[ScottyP45]

yeah like I said, finnicky and tightly toleranced!

lol