Intermittent Oil Pressure Warning

SDHA4SLine said:

I believe these suffer from oil pick up pipe issues where the pick up pipe gets blocked.

Sure someone more knowledgable will confirm or give a better answer soon, best thing you can do in the short term is not even start it. Get it towed to a garage asap.

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Paranoid69 said:

Beware of just letting it idle as the oil pressure warning doesn't kick in until the revs are higher.
Oil pickup pipe does sound like a possibility, there's a revised design due to the issues with the original.
I had the pickup replaced, although mine ran rough until the oil warmed up which sounds like the opposite to your symptoms.

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Giosabcsl said:

Firstly Welcome to the forums.

I hope you will find your time useful on the audi sport forum.


With regards to your issue..

There is a several causes of which can trigger oil pressure warning.

1. Cheap oil filters ( They are renowned to disintegrating or collapsing anything of the likes of K&N or fram)
2. Inside the oil filter housing there is a shaft like device which is required inside the housing to allow oil to keep inside the container.
2. The oil pressure switch is faulty.
3. The oil pick up is blocked which as mentioned above there is a revised part available. (This involves the sump being removed from the vehicle which in turn you will need to re gas your air con as there is a main pipe that runs underneath the sump, this can be avoided but strongly not suggested to bend pipes.)
4. There has been a few causes of incorrect oil being used.
5. The oil pump is on its way out.

Just some advice going forward it is generally strongly advised to not drive the vehicle but sometimes this isnt always the option people have.

That said the oil pressure warning will only trigger above 1800 rpm/2000rpm. So if you idled the car and built the revs up slowly to around those figures it will trigger.

Personally if I was in this situation which I have been before with one of my Audis. Is that to get a Vag Com scan on the vehicle. To check if the switch has failed as well as any faults are being flagged on the internal computer box.

Secondly try get hold of a oil pressure gauge and unscrew the oil pressure switch and put the gauge inside and do 3 tests.

- Measure the pressure at 90 degrees @1800 rpm
- Measure the vehicle at idle @90 degrees
- Measure the vehicle on cold start

The key items you are looking out for here is to see how much pressure is read. Secondly to see if the gauge is steady or if its moving about similar to a wonky speedo.

And then try and go from there.

Or better yet get the sump taken off and get the pick up replaced. The part is about £30-40 total for the pick up pipe as well as the rubber and screw. Labour some places will charge anything from 1 to 3 hr labour depending if they know what they doing or not.

Another thing to do is open the oil cap when the vehicle is off and take a look inside the valve cover with the likes of a torch and look at the state inside the cover they do tend to get a bit carboned up but see if it looks pretty bad. And while you at it take a look at the service history has it been serviced yearly or has it been serviced once every 2 years. Lastly try and see which grade of oil has been used.

Now I understand this will be a vast amount of information to take in at one go.

But these are the basis of trying to find the route of the cause.

I will ask were abouts are u based? And also did you buy the vehicle privately or from a dealer?

Please feel free to comment or question anything that you may not understand.

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