Tapping away

[JoeMc86]

Hi all, I've had my A4 avant TS Quattro for a few weeks now and I've been happy until the last week when it's been using a lot of oil. I've put 2ltr in it in the last week which I thought was strange. I've gone out with a friend tonight and while on the motorway the oil light warning came on but couldn't stop as there was no services so carried on for a couple more miles with no smoke nocks or bangs. Once at the services I put a litre in and started the engine and it stated to tap it's head off(realy loud).
I put some more oil in but it's carried on the same. There's no smoke or any sort of leak so I'm stuck for ideas and also I put different oil in this time to the time before as the first 1 I put in was the wrong type. Any help would be appreciated

 

[Oranoco]

Blocked oil pick up, and or dying oil pump. Unfortunately lack of oil pressure is likely to have made a mess of the engine.

 

[S4_dan]

oil light warning came on but couldn't stop as there was no services so carried on for a couple more miles

That bit there.

I agree with Oranoco.

You might be lucky with a sump drop and pick up clean and refill, but it doesn't sound good if you have been driving (at motorway speeds?) with low oil pressure I'm afraid. But you never know until you start looking at it.

 

[aragorn]

First question, was it the oil pressure warning (large and red) or the oil level warning (smaller and yellow)?

If it was the big red warning, it means "STOP DRIVING NOW", not, "continue driving for a bit until you can find a services or something."

If it was the yellow one, then fine, carrying on to a services probably isnt a huge deal.

If its using that amount of oil it must have a major leak but the bigger issue is that without oil pressure your engines bearings are receiving no lubrication, and will chew themselves up extremely quickly, which is why the red warning means you must stop now, rather than in a few miles.

If you have driven it with the red light on, then its quite possible the engines now knackered and either needs rebuilt or replaced.


Also, when you say you "put oil in", are you actually correctly filling it up to the level on the dipstick? Or just randomly pouring amounts of oil into the engine?

 

[Gazwould]

No hard shoulder on the motorway ?

No spare oil in the boot to put in considering it's high consumption ?

 

[Broken Byzan]

I bet the huge consumption was the turbo eating it. The turbo has gone due to poor pressure and i'd bet it's now seen the head off too as thets normally the 2nd thing to go after the turbo with low oil pressure

 

[graham33]

are you sure its the head mate and not the turbo??? I've had a few sound like and it was the head but it was the turbo, mainly on the 2.0 tdi audis... ( sorry to anyone but i heat the 2.0 tdis hahahah)
I no its not an audi but i had a berlingo ( favor for a mate) come same sound and it was the turbo , fixed it and it came back turbo again then 3 weeks later the ****** thing came back again, yes you guess it, TURBO... it was fixed right every time flushed all the lines the lot,
and it turned out it was the little ****** pick up pipe gauze, so every turbo i fit gets the pick up pipe gauze taken out!

 

[aragorn]

the gauze is there to stop anything large getting drawn into the oil pump, remove it and all you'll end up with is a mashed oil pump when a piece of carbon or similar gets sucked into the pump...

The gauze is only going to get blocked if the engines been poorly maintained and is full of crap.

The turbos were failing due to poor oil pressure, the same poor oil pressure makes the engine sound "tappy" as various parts rely on oil pressure for correct operation.

 

[graham33]

the gauze is there to stop anything large getting drawn into the oil pump, remove it and all you'll end up with is a mashed oil pump when a piece of carbon or similar gets sucked into the pump...

The gauze is only going to get blocked if the engines been poorly maintained and is full of ****.

The turbos were failing due to poor oil pressure, the same poor oil pressure makes the engine sound "tappy" as various parts rely on oil pressure for correct operation.

every motor we fix , are for mates , and are treat like sh+te they can't even fill the washer bottles up,
and the others (work vans) well i wouldn't let my dog sleep in them , and as i'm sure we all no mates want it done for free well just about and they wont buy new parts, like 2 rear wheel bearings for a b5, £20 to the dooor...no no no take it off the scrapper in the yard ..***
thank god when we go back it will be the very very odd time we will be fixing cars,
as we're now getting 30 cars a week off the insurance company, so it will be a case of listing and stripping cars/parts all day long