1.8t Oil light - eek.

[casiodan]

Hi guys,

I know its been covered a few times before but just want to confirm my best course of action. My car is a 2002 A4 avant 1.8t (163) with 128k on the clock, and was lats serviced 9k miles ago.

I was driving home last night and the oil light came on, i was on the motorway so instead of killing the ignition i put my foot on the clutch and let the engine idle.

As soon as the revs dropped the light went off. Stupidly i carried on but as soon as the revs got up again the light came back on.

The was no funny noises and no loss of power or smoke etc. Although ever since i bought it (3months ago) it has been a bit noisy on cold starting for a couple of seconds.

So i got it home and checked the oil level which was fine.

Looking at the other threads i figure it is one of two possible problems.

a> sludge building up and blocking the oil pump pick up pipe
b> oil pump failure

Can anyone confirm this for me and what needs replacing to fix it. I am using a mechanic i have used for years but he isn't and audi specialist so if i can tell him what the probable fault is it might save him some time and me some money.

Cheers folks

Dan

 

[casiodan]

Ok just to add to this,

I just went out to check the oil level in the daylight and it is fine. I opened the filler cap to see if there was any sludge and there doesnt appear to be any but whatever that part you can see when you open the cap is was pretty dry. I fired the engine up and it made its usual noisy start and then settled down as normal. The part you can see under the filler cap was still pretty dry. It has some oil on it but i notice a bit of debris on it which looked like old oil residue.......is this the sludge? I tried to get it out but it is just out of reach.

Im getting worried now!

 

[A4Andy]

I think your oil pump is dying.

 

[james0808]

I think the sludge is in the sump around the oil pick up pipe.
Dont drive it until you get it properly checked,you might get away with just another oil pump.
Good luck with it.

 

[casiodan]

I hope it is just the pump.

My mechanic is recovering it as soon as he can...........anyone got a car i can borrow lol.

Ive got that sick feeling in my stomach..........just as i forget about it, something reminds me i might be in for a bill bigger than the one i just had for xmas,

 

[J7USS]

Yes dont drive it till its checked out.

You dont wanna be facing a bill for over 3Grand like I did!!!!

 

[casiodan]

i know mate, i came across your story. What exactly did you get for your money?

 

[J7USS]

i know mate, i came across your story. What exactly did you get for your money?

£3200 got me Fitting of 2nd hand engine and a recon turbo. I had a new clutch/oilpump/waterpump fitted/pick up pipe and a few little essentials in that price too.

....and it also bought me a Sick feeling top'd with a fat migrane..:icon_thumright:

 

[quattro4]

If your car has been on extended service intervals with synthetic oil, then it may well be the oil strainer on the oil punp pick up grtting clogged! This is a known fault and I had it happen on my A4 1.8T quattro at 4yrs and 50000 miles. I convinced Audi to contribute towards the costs and got them to replace the oil pump at the same time. Only the strainer needed replacing but for the time involved in fitting an oil pump it seemed worth doing whilst the sump was off (4 hrs labour, as the sub frame needs dropping)! Seems the synthetic oil picks up carbon deposits and the strainer picks them out of the oil and gets blocked!! Have reverted to standard oil and 10000 mile service intervals. Costs are about the same between the sevicing types, just meens an extra trip to the garage for servicing.

 

[casiodan]

what do the carbon deposits look like, I just looked under the filler cap and found what looks like a piece of melted plastic..only tiny, maybe 2mm across but obviously not meant to be there!

 

[casiodan]

I got away with it!!!

Oil pump was only just working. Got to max 20lbs pressure.......what ever that means lol!

Anyways, the guy fitted the new pump and gave everything a clean, although he said it wasn;t too bad.

Hopefully everything is sorted now.

Thanks for the advice guys.

Dan

 

[J7USS]

A relief eh!!!:icon_thumright: