hey all, im new to this forum and i hope you can help me. i have a 97 R reg, a3 1.8t, engine code agu. I was driving it and the oil light came on so i plugged it into the fault code reader and nothing came up. then went to it and it would not start. so i took the cylinder head off, all the valves are ok, pistons are fine with no movement. so i took the sump off and realised the oil was really thick like syrup and the oil pump was clogged up. i have changed the oil pump and it still wont start. There is a spark at the spark plug and there is fuel getting through but seems to be no compression on any of the cylinders. the crank and cam are fine. What can be wrong?

the only thing i can think of is blocked oil feeds?? anyone had a similar problem? any help would be much apprieciated. Thanks Matt

 

Ok, so firstly you haven't done an oil change is quite some time? You need to regularly check the oil pickup on the A3 turbos / GTis as they tend to collect crystalized oil particals / carbon deposits rather quick, especially as the car gets older and more hot gasses pass by the oil rings into the rest of the engine.

If you don't have any compression then the oil rings may have burnt into the pistons, due to the lack of oil. You could try and remove the pistons through the sump by losening the bottom brackets of each on the crank. be carefull not the nick or damage the bigend bearings, as you can get away with not having to replace them it they didn't get damaged in this whole oil presure problem. Clean out the pistons and try and loosen the rings. don't force them out as they are very hard and may break. If you have the cash put new ones in as it'll improve the compression substantially.

This is all recommeded if your on a short budget and can't have the engine rebuilt. If you do mange to get the engine running again, listen carefully for any nocking noise or grining, just incase any more damage was afflicted to the internals that you can't immediately identify.

Cheers, hope this help. I just replaced my oilpump on my 99 A3 also with AGU motor. Its a rather simple job, so shout if you need more advice. Also have a good contact at SAC if you need more help.

 

Sounds like that engine is fuxored. You'll probably be much better off picking up a salvage yard engine that is in normal condition, and next time, check your oil and do the maintenance.