Please help oil light audi a1

[vw754]

Purchased a car a few days ago, over 100k on it....I drove it down the motorway at a good speed of 80mph,for an hour or so, drove fine, no issues.
My son drove it last night said he was doing 45-50 and the 'low oil pressure' light came on and 'stop engine'...... So he did, after an hour or so he started it, drove home.
This morning I've checked oil level which was about a litre over full( serviced prior to me buying it)
I've reduced that, so it's all level now.
I've driven the car today, no issues, no lights on the dash, drives perfectly...... What do I do now ??

I've read oil pick up pipe can get clogged, also read that oil pump is driven by a belt that can jump or slip as its on the inside of the engine...... I need some advice...... Do I flush the engine, put new oil and filter see how it goes or do I replace oil pump belt..... Or replace oil pick up........ I was thinking flushing it and changing oil and filter..... Any ideas why its done that and what I should do?
Last serviced by garage 800 miles ago by previous owner.

 

[Retroman]

I'm assuming a smaller engine. A one litre overfill is quite a lot. I've read (although not experienced myself) that significant overfilling can cause the crankshaft to whip up the sump oil with air bubbles which will lower overall oil pressure. Personally, given the previous (botched) oil service, I would change the oil and filter myself and watch it carefully - engines with bottom end bearing problems often have visible metallic fragments in the old filter.

 

[vw754]

I'm assuming a smaller engine. A one litre overfill is quite a lot. I've read (although not experienced myself) that significant overfilling can cause the crankshaft to whip up the sump oil with air bubbles which will lower overall oil pressure. Personally, given the previous (botched) oil service, I would change the oil and filter myself and watch it carefully - engines with bottom end bearing problems often have visible metallic fragments in the old filter.

Thanks for the reply, I really appreciate it...... Its level now, but I think I'm going flush engine, new oil and filter and hopefully all good, weirdly I drove it on the m6 motorway for an hour without any lights or low oil pressure warnings, then locally it threw low oil pressure light.
Sorry its a 1.6 tdi engine code CAYC

 

[Retroman]

I don't know what sort of filter you car has but mine (along with many BMWs) have a "stick" on the filter with a small o-ring which seals the oil at the bottom of the oil filter canister and helps maintain oil pressure in the upper engine. If it is fitted incorrectly (or in the case of BMWs o-ring not renewed) it can allow oil leak back to the sump and reduce pressure in the upper engine. When I change my filter, sometimes the stick bit gets detached/stuck and I have to pull it out with long nosed pliers before fitting the new one. If the previous owner was not very expert, who knows what errors/mistakes he made?

 

[vw754]

Spot on.... They overfilled it start with, so tomorrow going put some engine flush in tomorrow, drain oil, put genuine oil and oil filter in.
Yes its like the one on the stick the oil filter is.

 

[vw754]

OK..... I put engine flush in and run at fast idle 15 minutes as it says on the stp engine flush bottle..... Then I removed filter the oil filter was layered with a paste of sludge....... The oil filter housing was clean..... I put in a new genuine filter and seals, and fresh oil.... Genuine oil too..... Sounds OK, sweet as.... Not driven it yet...... But when I drained the old oil out, no sludge came out with that, it was all normal black oil.... Am I right in thinking the oil filter has done its job and prevented it going in the engine??
Is sludge due to crap oil or lack of services? Will it be OK or should I service it again after a thousand miles or will it be OK, with the oil coming out normal?

 

[gary3306]

Given that you had sludge in your filter, it wouldn't harm to do another oil and filter change in 1000/1500 miles, but don't flush again, just do oil and filter. The flushing you did may have dislodged sludge and the filter has trapped it, as it should do. What Retroman said about significant overfilling, and the oil being whipped up to a froth is true. It aerates the oil which in turn can cause cavitation in the oil pump and a drop in oil pressure significant enough for the car to sh1t itself and give you the low pressure warning. I'm not saying that the symptoms you had are 100% caused by the above, but it's a likely candidate. Sludge is normally due to lack of oil changes, there isn't really any rubbish oils nowadays, just some are better than others, some are far better than others. Good luck with it.

 

[vw754]

Thanks very much for your reply.

 

[Retroman]

When I have seen very old (paper) oil filters coming out of engines that have suffered from lack of oil servicing, they are typically "compressed" and thin around the middle. The result being that contaminated oil bypasses the filter and continues to circulate around the engine. I've even known such "compressed" filters to disintegrate and come apart.

If your filter was still the normal uniform barrel shape, I would guess that it has done its job and just filtered out sludge dislodged by the flushing treatment. It sounds as if the engine may have suffered from lack of oil servicing and personally, I would change it again after a 1,000 miles or so as you suggest. If you'll doing it DIY, it's not a major expense to do so.

I'd also be suspicious about the other filters - pollen, air and fuel. You wouldn't be the first person to find that one or more of them are still the originals

 

[vw754]

Thanks..... All other filters I've checked and are good.... I'll definitely be changing it again after 1,000...... Just oil change with filter and not flush it again?