bit of a stupid question

Nathen

Nathen

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was driving my A3 yesterday slowing down from 70 and my "min oil light" come on, it's done this a few times in the past while driving 60-70, anyway panicking a bit as i always do, I pulled over turned the car off and checked the dip stick, my question is there supposed to be oil between the min n max but when I checked I had a bit of oil where it said max n loads at the tip and where it said min but non anywhere inbetween, usually u have oil inbetween min n max but I didnt, the car had a service less than a year ago, also when I turned the car back on the oil light went off and hasn't come back on. I feel ashamed asking about reading a dipstick after doing a 4 year mechanics course but this dipstick is hard to read haha.

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Ideally you need to check the oil level after the cars been stood still with engine off for a while to get a true reading. Should be below the max but above the minimum. I keep mine as close to max as possible but to be honest i check monthly and mine never needs topping up between it's 10k services.
 
I agree what plonker though of using a black dipstick to read oil level lol
 
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Jps3290 said:
Ideally you need to check the oil level after the cars been stood still with engine off for a while to get a true reading. Should be below the max but above the minimum. I keep mine as close to max as possible but to be honest i check monthly and mine never needs topping up between it's 10k services.
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yh I'm aware of that :) I was just panicking a bit and wasn't really thinking, may be a problem with the sensor tbh. no leaks that I can see and not smoking particular much so, I didn't top the oil up for simple reason I didn't know to trust the sensor or not and didn't want to over fill.

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LEE69 said:
I agree what plonker though of using a black dipstick to read oil level lol
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haha I was always under the assumption that dip sticks were yellow at the end. I do agree I am a bit of a tool at times though.

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LEE69 said:
I agree what plonker though of using a black dipstick to read oil level lol
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.....and with a bend in the tube preventing an easy read.
My old A4 TDI had a flat metal dipstick that could be read in about a second, I always run my cars at an oil level exactly on the 'Max' mark.
The A3 dipstick is truly dismal, it takes me about 5 'dips' on average to work out what the hell the level actually is meant to be , as it usually smears around the plastic blob above the min-max range, so hard to tell the actual level.....
Whoever designed it should be ashamed of themselves.
Rant over,lol.
 
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Be nice if we could use a replacement

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Nessy said:
.....and with a bend in the tube preventing an easy read.
My old A4 TDI had a flat metal dipstick that could be read in about a second, I always run my cars at an oil level exactly on the 'Max' mark.
The A3 dipstick is truly dismal, it takes me about 5 'dips' on average to work out what the hell the level actually is meant to be , as it usually smears around the plastic blob above the min-max range, so hard to tell the actual level.....
Whoever designed it should be ashamed of themselves.
Rant over,lol.
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apparently mine is running on the max level according to the dip stick, but like i said the max mark has only a smear of oil not a lot and only on one side of the stick and the tip is drenched with no oil between the max and min marks, may go out and have a look again while the cars been stood for a while on level ground.

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Be careful that the bottom end is not being starved of oil from the oil pick up pipe, these get blocked and can blow the engine.
 
Are you sure it isn't the oil pressure sensor light?

As a precaution I would have the sump taken off at a vag specialist near you and have the oil pickup pipe replaced, they're reasonably cheap and could save you from some considerable bills in the future.

I had my old S3's pickup pipe changed at Badger5 and it had bits of dipstick stuck in it somehow!
 
vivalacoulter said:
Are you sure it isn't the oil pressure sensor light?

As a precaution I would have the sump taken off at a vag specialist near you and have the oil pickup pipe replaced, they're reasonably cheap and could save you from some considerable bills in the future.

I had my old S3's pickup pipe changed at Badger5 and it had bits of dipstick stuck in it somehow!
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Christ I never thought of that, I'll post a pic of the light on the thread and you can see what it is, I just assumed it's the min oil light. it's only just started to come on, when u turn the car on n off the light goes out, is it quite comme for the pick up pipe to get blocked?

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audismart said:
Be careful that the bottom end is not being starved of oil from the oil pick up pipe, these get blocked and can blow the engine.
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yh I'm going to check, It never even crossed my mind. thanks for letting me know.

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Nathen said:
Christ I never thought of that, I'll post a pic of the light on the thread and you can see what it is, I just assumed it's the min oil light. it's only just started to come on, when u turn the car on n off the light goes out, is it quite comme for the pick up pipe to get blocked?

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Click to expand...

Yeah I think it can be pretty common, was the light red or amber?
 
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vivalacoulter said:
Are you sure it isn't the oil pressure sensor light?

As a precaution I would have the sump taken off at a vag specialist near you and have the oil pickup pipe replaced, they're reasonably cheap and could save you from some considerable bills in the future.

I had my old S3's pickup pipe changed at Badger5 and it had bits of dipstick stuck in it somehow!
Click to expand...
it's defiantly not the red one it's the other one, I've just read up on it in my user manual and if it flashes when it's a dodgy sensor, red is oil pressure and if it's just the orange it's check oil, the symbol comes up in the centre of my dash where the radio station usually is.
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vivalacoulter said:
That's good then, I'd pop out today and get some oil to top up with then.
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bit of a relief tbh haha got enough problems with the car as it's is with out oil pressure adding to the list haha, thanks for the help I went out the other day after work to get some oil and I have topped it up, cheers :)

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Happens to me on long journeys when driving 60-80 mph as well. Dipstick reading is also at the max, I usually stop, shut the engine off for a few mins, measure, make sure everything is okay and then keep ignoring it for the day (the warning usually goes away after 10-15min by itself).
 
Rideen said:
Happens to me on long journeys when driving 60-80 mph as well. Dipstick reading is also at the max, I usually stop, shut the engine off for a few mins, measure, make sure everything is okay and then keep ignoring it for the day (the warning usually goes away after 10-15min by itself).
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oh right my warning goes off as soon I restart the engine, there must be a reason for it I just don't know what it could be.

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