RED OIL LIGHT ISSUE - OPINIONS NEEDED

[christiebowman]

Hello lovely people,

I'm new here! I've recently bought an Audi A3 - Y Reg from a private seller.

I needed a new car in a rush as my VW Golf T Reg died on me and I pretty much bought it without viewing it, I know I know! Spare me... Please! 

Anyways, I gave it a quick test drive, everything seemed fine, then on the drive home, the red oil light came on, followed by 3 beeps. I tried contacting the seller but he's pulled a fast one on me and won't answer my calls! 

I've been driving it for about a week now, to and from work (15 miles each way). And I've noticed this only comes on when I come to a halt and only after driving around the 50-70mph mark.

From what I've researched already, if it's the oil pressure pump, I'm buggered and shouldn't really be driving it at all until it's fixed. So I took it into a local garage a couple days after I bought it to have this looked at and was told my oil pressure is reading absolutely fine and that it'll be down to a dodgy sensor, which they'd replace for £130.

I pick up the car after work and on the drive home, as I come off the M1 and come to a set of lights, the red oil light comes on followed by 3 beeps, AGAIN! 

So I take it back to the mechanic the next morning and he says he's not sure what it could be, maybe something electrical and he could spend hours trying to diagnose it and it be costly.. I said I wanted my £130 back seeing as he diagnosed it wrong and essentially removed a working sensor and replaced it with another working sensor and he just said "that ain't going to happen" some of you may agree with him, I don't know.. 

My question to you guys is, what the !Removed! hell is the issue? I've read somewhere it could be a blocked oil pickup pipe, but if that is the case, surely the oil pressure wouldn't be reading above the minimum? If not, any ideas what else it could be?

All help and advice is greatly appreciated! 

If you have any questions I'll do my best to answer them with my very limited car knowledge! 

Cheers,

Christie Bowman

[Steve Q]

Welcome to the forum Christie :) 

youll find the members on here are a friendly and helpful bunch :) 

im not sure what the fault could be myself but I'm sure some of the more technically minded members will be able to help :) 

cheers

steve 

[Magnet]

Hello Christie, 

A couple of questions, as is my want! :- 

What engine do we have here, and can we take it that the mileage on this 16 year old car is now reasonably high? 

Do you know what oil is being used and when that oil and filter were last changed? 

I'm from the old school of doing the simplest/ least costly things first, and if it were mine, I would/ would have  treated it to an oil change and a good quality oil filter, and see what happens. 

I would ask the garage what the oil pressure readings actually were, and if they were carried out with the oil at its operating temperature. Incase it helps in the future, any road test should be a minimum of 10 miles to ensure the oil has reached its operating temperature. No good testing oil pressures/ oil lights when the coolant has reached Normal - the oil will need another few miles to get up to temperature, as you have found out. But who road tests cars over this mileage? It's usually fallen-in-love time before this! 

If this is diesel by any chance, then you may have engine oil diluted by diesel, but we are moving away towards assumptions, before we know the facts.

Kind regards,

Gareth.

[christiebowman]

Hi Gareth @Magnet,

I have answers for you!

The engine is a 1.6 and the mileage is 111,600 as of today.

 

I believe the oil is 0W40?

 

Last Friday, a couple of days after I got the car, I tried to book it into a garage but nobody could see me until Monday. So I called out the AA and told them there was an oil light on. He checked the dipstick and the oil was about half way up the dipstick!! He said there was far too much oil in it and drained about 10L of oil out of it... Since then I've checked it daily and made sure it stays as should be. Do you know how much it would cost for a garage to do an oil change and replace the filter?

I believe I remember the garage saying the oil pressure readings were at a 2.0 and the lowest they could be was at a 1.8, however he did say this was testing whilst sitting idle, and that after he had fitted the new sensor he took it for a test drive which I later found out is only a 2 mile test drive pottering around the little village of Abbots Langley, not enough to get the temperature up, I'm sure!

And lastly, it's a petrol, not diesel.

Hope this helps paint a better picture for you! Cheers for your help.

[Magnet]

Hello Christie,

Thanks for coming back. It's probably me, but I'm a little confused on timing and events here:- " Last Friday, a couple of days after I got the car ......... so I called out the AA...."  , but if I read your earlier post correctly, it had already been into a garage days before that and had the oil pressure checked and sensor changed. 

0w40? Doubtful. Not sure if your year 1.6 would should run on semi synthetic 10w40, but the later ones run on fully synthetic 5/30. I think I would go with a good quality semi synthetic 10/40 for a start. 

Oil pressure reading at 2 (I take it that is measuring in bar which is about 30psi in old language). If you have 30psi at idle with the oil hot then I would not be worried, but as I say, it has to be measured with the engine oil hot to be meaningful, so test may not mean anything. 

AA draining off about 10 litres of engine oil - well as unbelievable as this sounds it must be right. I'm sure you will appreciate that that amounts to over 2 gallons excess! 

What I would do now - which is what I said:-

Have engine oil and filter changed, and I would use a good quality semi synthetic 10w/40 and a good quality oil filter. Oil capacity I'm guessing is around 5litres but you need to confirm. 

Do I know how much London garages charge to change the oil and filter?  Sorry no I don't, but just try your local garage. If you are buying the oil, then Wilkinsons (Wilko) are doing Mobil at £24 for 5 litres, and a good quality filter (say Mann or Audi) should be yours for less than £10. 

Good luck with it Christie,

Gareth.

 

[Rob82DZL]

Hi christiebowman, I agree with Magnet get the oil flush and replaced with a premium quality 10w40. The higher viscosity will help if there's excessive ware on the engine. Another possibility but I'm not sure on the 1.6 petrol could be a partially blocked oil way from the head back to the sump.

I had very similar symptoms on an old Astra which turned out to be a blocked oil way from the head back to the sump! It usually gets caused due to mixing different brands of oil over time. (big no no, never mix different bands/grades of oil, it'll come back to haunt you at some point!) 

Food for thought :)

[Magnet]

Hello Robin,

It seems Christie has not been on here for about a week so we don't know how he is getting on with this. Shame.

Perhaps the oil way you are talking about is the oil feed from the pressure side of the oil pump, which pumps oil up to the overhead camshaft ( with the oil returning to the sump via. numerous large cast in holes which allows the oil to get into the sump in the first place when the oil is changed/topped up). If this oil way was blocked it would prevent oil getting to the top of the engine, but not necessarily cause the oil oil pressure light to come on. 

I just wonder with your Astra if it suffered from a previous glorious lack of oil changing, and/or coolant entering the oil via. a head gasket issue - causing the oil to emulsify and eventually clog up the oil way. 

Mixing grades and brands of oil being a big no, no? This should not be an issue, or a cause of oil sludging in its own right. Although you should always use the recommended viscosity and specification as the first choice, with high mileage or worn engines it can be worth reconsidering alternative near-grades. Mixing same specification brands leading to blocked oil ways? Never yet come across this in over 55 years of motoring.

Besides do the usual frequent fluids checks and tyre condition and pressure checks, probably the most important part of maintenance is to treat the vehicle to good quality oil and filter changes - it does reap rewards. So called long- life schedules? OK they have their place but  for old fashioned me it's a 10k mile/ 1year job for me. 

Kind regards,

Gareth.

[Rob82DZL]

Hi Gareth,

With the astra it was poor maintainence prior to my ownership! It had high milage and drank oil at a rate of 1lt every 1000 miles (but didn't smoke to much or leak!).

The blockage was the numerous drain holes that had virtually sludged up over time down through the head. 

Basically mosy the oil would end up sat under the rocker cover slowly draining back down to the sum! So occationally I'd get the oil warning light if I booted for more than about 30 sec! Then it would clear it self!

Best thing that ever happen to that car was death! 😂😂

[Magnet]

20 hours ago, Rob82DZL said:

Hi Gareth,

With the astra it was poor maintainence prior to my ownership! It had high milage and drank oil at a rate of 1lt every 1000 miles (but didn't smoke to much or leak!).

The blockage was the numerous drain holes that had virtually sludged up over time down through the head. 

Basically mosy the oil would end up sat under the rocker cover slowly draining back down to the sum! So occationally I'd get the oil warning light if I booted for more than about 30 sec! Then it would clear it self!

Best thing that ever happen to that car was death! 😂😂

Thanks Robin,

Highly, highly unusual for the return oil galleries (large holes) from the head back to the sump to be clogged to a degree that the return oil is restricted with resultant low oil pressure ,  but as I said " ....perhaps it suffered from a previous glorious lack of oil changing...." 

Kind regards,

Gareth.

[Rob82DZL]

It only cost a couple hundred quid and did the job untill I got my next Audi 😊.

It was a mess internally I never seen oil go like that, it was almost like tar!!!!