"Oil sludge problem" Oil Light / Check Engine lights came on! High five!
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Joined: Jul 2009
Posts: 35
Previous owner might of been...
I've been changing it every 4-5k miles with synthetic mobil1 each time.
The pressure problem should be fixed now, seems the engine is burning or just losing oil over a month period of time, but just replaced the gasket cover where the most pertinent leak was. Theres blacklight dye in the oil now so if it leaks again hope to be able to spot exactly where else its coming from, as of right now its been decent for the past few weeks, minus the whole lose of a quart 1/2 of oil in a month thing haha
I've been changing it every 4-5k miles with synthetic mobil1 each time.
The pressure problem should be fixed now, seems the engine is burning or just losing oil over a month period of time, but just replaced the gasket cover where the most pertinent leak was. Theres blacklight dye in the oil now so if it leaks again hope to be able to spot exactly where else its coming from, as of right now its been decent for the past few weeks, minus the whole lose of a quart 1/2 of oil in a month thing haha
1st Gear
Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 7
Bought my 03 A4TQ at auction knowing it needed tires and there may be other issues.
Having spent $4,000 less than a private sale I had some room to work with.
Getting near home 30 minutes out the oil light came on. (Heart sinking feeling)
After lots of research and finding some crust under the oil cap and judging from the service light being on, black oil and crusty dip stick, I decided it must be sludge.
Ran some oil treatment on the road for a total of about 30 minutes on 3 runs over the course of a month to soften things up.
Opened up the top and bottom over the weekend. Pleasantly surprised that cam bearings all ok... I was pretty worried about this. Some sludge blocking small oil passages though.
It appears that the engine had been uncovered previously and cleaned up a bit as there were obvious cleaning swipes up top in the valve cover. Everything covered in moderate varnish.
Oil pan was covered in a layer of the red-brown varnish like the top. In the bottom of the pan were sand sized white crumbs. These were in the oil pickup as well. Also had black stick like bits of varnish that were even smaller stuck in the screen. That was oil light.
Walls of the block are 'fluffy' with varnish crud.
Obviously whoever opened up the pan resealed it with lots of sealant rather than the maximum 3mm bead as there was a 3mm bead in and outside the sealing surface of the pan.
Used POR Marine clean to dissolve the varnish off the valve cover and oil pan. Stuff works great but does react with alum but a 10-15 minute soak and light wipe was enough to clean things to a sparkling dull grey finish. From the smell, main ingredient must be tri-sodium phosphate (TSP) available from paint stores mixed with detergents the smell like carpet cleaning solution. TSP works great cleaning dried paint on brushes.
Will attack the inside of the block next by scraping and more marine clean.
Along the way found about $700 needed in replacement parts in addition to the oil pickup as the belly pans were missing along with broken driver side sound panel liner various broken hose mounts and assorted missing hardware. Also replacing all the pan bolts as they were over tightened and sustained marring taking them out. Other discoveries included broken battery cover, improperly install front bumper and finger tight spark plugs... didn't need a ratchet.
Hopefully ECS Tuning will get the parts out sooner rather than later and I'll get to really enjoy the car.
Like esandes says, these cars need to be cared for properly and you can't do it yourself on a trailer park budget and without a proper manual and tools.
PGF
____________________
03 A4 1.8TQ
87 5000S
Having spent $4,000 less than a private sale I had some room to work with.
Getting near home 30 minutes out the oil light came on. (Heart sinking feeling)
After lots of research and finding some crust under the oil cap and judging from the service light being on, black oil and crusty dip stick, I decided it must be sludge.
Ran some oil treatment on the road for a total of about 30 minutes on 3 runs over the course of a month to soften things up.
Opened up the top and bottom over the weekend. Pleasantly surprised that cam bearings all ok... I was pretty worried about this. Some sludge blocking small oil passages though.
It appears that the engine had been uncovered previously and cleaned up a bit as there were obvious cleaning swipes up top in the valve cover. Everything covered in moderate varnish.
Oil pan was covered in a layer of the red-brown varnish like the top. In the bottom of the pan were sand sized white crumbs. These were in the oil pickup as well. Also had black stick like bits of varnish that were even smaller stuck in the screen. That was oil light.
Walls of the block are 'fluffy' with varnish crud.
Obviously whoever opened up the pan resealed it with lots of sealant rather than the maximum 3mm bead as there was a 3mm bead in and outside the sealing surface of the pan.
Used POR Marine clean to dissolve the varnish off the valve cover and oil pan. Stuff works great but does react with alum but a 10-15 minute soak and light wipe was enough to clean things to a sparkling dull grey finish. From the smell, main ingredient must be tri-sodium phosphate (TSP) available from paint stores mixed with detergents the smell like carpet cleaning solution. TSP works great cleaning dried paint on brushes.
Will attack the inside of the block next by scraping and more marine clean.
Along the way found about $700 needed in replacement parts in addition to the oil pickup as the belly pans were missing along with broken driver side sound panel liner various broken hose mounts and assorted missing hardware. Also replacing all the pan bolts as they were over tightened and sustained marring taking them out. Other discoveries included broken battery cover, improperly install front bumper and finger tight spark plugs... didn't need a ratchet.
Hopefully ECS Tuning will get the parts out sooner rather than later and I'll get to really enjoy the car.
Like esandes says, these cars need to be cared for properly and you can't do it yourself on a trailer park budget and without a proper manual and tools.
PGF
____________________
03 A4 1.8TQ
87 5000S
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