Hello all, im a new member here and i have a quick question. I have a 97 A4 1.8T with about 63,000 miles on it. This morning the car flashed the oil light (not the one on the odometer) and im wondering what would cause this. the car was running for a couple minutes, but the temp over night was about -10 to -20 F. could this be because the oil was so cold it was not yet curculating properly? any input would be helpful, and BTW, great forum!!

-Andy

my guess is your oil was sludging and not making it through all of the proper lines before the car warmed up. do you use synthetic oil in the car? if not you should. also, if you have too heavy an oil in there with all of the oil lines to the turbo that would probably be effected by the cold as well. I think audi reccommends a 5w-30.

yes the oil is synthetic and i just had it changed last week. i was thinking that tomorrow morning i will let the car idle for a few minutes to let the oil warm up and work itself through the motor. if the light doesnt flash after that maybe the cold was the problem. if i get the same result as today, can anyone point to the next step or is it best to just bring it to the shop?

-andy

I agree with Nick id dump some seafoam (or something of that nature) into it and change the oil again.

0W-40 and 5W-40 synthetic are recommended.

https://www.audiforums.com/m_16044/tm.htm

If the red oil pressure light is flashing on and off, DO NOT START YOUR ENGINE. A flashing red light means there is essentially no oil pressure (as opposed to one that stays on or goes on intermittently which means low pressure). Have your car towed to a dealer and start collecting up your oil change receipts.

If the oil pressure light is on for a short period of time, you likely have sludge and some oil pressure left. The cheap route is to try some cleaner like seafoam to get out some of the sludge. The expensive route is to have the pan dropped and replace the oil pump.