So I have have driven my new to me 01 A4 1.8T manual for a couple of months, and it has one issue which still has me concerned. That is three times now the low oil level light has come on. Not the pressure the level light. I'm pretty good about checking oil, and I don't think it has ever gotten really low on oil while I've had the car. All three times when this happened, I parked the car and let it sit for a while, and then checked the oil level. All three times the oil level on the dip stick was just about in the middle of the hash marks, maybe a 1/16" under half way. I put in an appropriate amount of oil (roughly 1/2 qt) and things are fine again.

So I am puzzled by this warning light. Is it common for the low oil warning to start going off when you are just 1/2 qt low? Do these engines really need to be kept that close to full of oil? Is this by design, or is this a potentially faulty oil level sensor? I had been planning on doing an oil/filter change job in the near future, should I also throw in a new oil level sensor, or should I not worry about this?

Second part of this is the associated question of where is this oil going. So this oil refill is very roughly a qt every 800-1000 miles. I have not noticed any oil under the car or on the engine. I have not pulled the intake to see if it is going there, but it does not smoke and recently passed emissions with great numbers. What do folks think about this oil usage and what are some likely places to check?

TIA

 

I've never had a problem with my oil light coming on (although my oil level never really drops). If this has happened three times and you add half a quart every time, then you have to be losing oil somewhere? You may want to put in a new sensor and see if that fixes it.

 

my pressure sending switch is bad. every time i hang around 3k or more it beeps 3 times, and flashes a lot but will stop if the engine rpm is less than 2k. go figure. the only place oil could really be coming from is the turbo considering the consumption rate. but it would be throwing smoke...