Hello i am desperately hoping someone can me with a oil light problem.

Year: 2006
Model: A3
Engine: 2.0 FSI BVZ 6 Speed
Milage: 180 000 KM
FWD
No CEL/Codes Unkown

At this point i think it would be best to start at the beginning of my nightmare, sorry for the life story that follows but i am hoping the more info i put forward the easier it will be to get some help.

Problems started while i was driving i lost all power with no loud noises or any indication of a fault the car just seemed to stall, tried to restart and it would give a little sputter and then die at this point i noticed the EPC light on the dash and decided it was something electrical most probably fuel related, towed it in to the dealer.

The auto electrician at the dealer came to the decision that it was a fuel pump sitting within the fuel tank, he replaced that and the car started up no problem. While the car was there i had some minor body work done i add this because the car sat for a few days and maybe that has contributed to this problem.

Had my father pick up the car from the dealer as i was at work unable to leave, he started it and heard a rough sound only at idle, down the highway at higher revs the car ran perfectly, after hearing the noise and doing my own research i came to the conclusion the rough sound was from the camshaft adjuster assembly.

At this point i knew i had to replace the camshaft adjuster chain and tensioner, so i opened up the plastic camshaft cover and to my horror all i could see was oil buildup. Having read about Audi and sludge i thought it might be a good idea to drop the sump and make sure there was no blockage on the oil pickup or in the sump, the sump was pretty good considering the cars age and the pickup had no major buildup and oil could clearly pass through no problem. To replace the camshaft adjusters chain and tensioner i could not remove the actual camshaft adjuster and followed other advice from forums where you rather lift the camshaft box, let the camshafts float giving you enough play to remove the chain and tensioner.

Got that all done being very careful about those oil rings in the cover that i was told cannot be replaced and the entire cover had to be purchased. Got it all back together and cleaned most of the oil buildup out of the camshaft box, turned the motor over a few times by hand to make sure i had everything right. Started the car and it ran smooth no knocking noises, headed off down the road for a test drive and the dash display threw up oil pressure error with three beeps. Stopped checked oil level all fine decided to go no further and got the car back to the workshop.

Put on a electrical oil pressure gauge started it up and it went straight up to 5 bar, even though i thought this might be a little high i decided it must be a faulty oil pressure switch so replaced that to no avail light still comes on.

Looking around the engine bay i noticed a slight buzzing sound that increased in speed with the rpm of the motor, using the old screwdriver stethoscope trick i started hunting, found the the noise most pronounced when i had the screw driver on the oil cooler and oil filter housing.

Now thinking it could be high oil pressure problem i set off doing a flush, removed cleaned and reinstalled the oil filter housing making sure the oil pressure relief valve was fine, i also noticed three one way valves in the oil filter housing behind the oil cooler two of them can be easily pressed in while the third seemed rather hard and maybe slightly skew, i found that it slid up out of its chamber so i removed it and re-seated it straight, i think this has largely reduced the buzzing noise i described earlier but the light still comes on and i am running out of options money and most importantly motivation, please i am willing to take any advice at this point.

I have also had it at a local independent workshop to check for fault codes, I do not know if he had the VAG-COM system as i am unfamiliar with it, it was a cable going to a little box that linked to a android tablet and it reported no fault codes.

Thanks in advance.

 

If you had that much sludge build up around the cams there was/is come build up in the oil galleys that has come loose and clogged something somewhere. The only way to clean it short of a total disassembly (ie. expensive) is to dump some SeaFoam in the oil and let it work it's magic dissolving the oil sludge like a blood thinner breaking up a clot in the ol' blood stream. If you're in the UK, I'm not sure if it's a available but I'm sure there is an equivalent. I'd run the max dosage for a few days and change the oil and filter. If the noise goes away and the oil light stays off, you should be good to go. However, it may take a couple of treatments to clear it up. If you do get it cleared up, I'd starting running a minimal dose of SeaFoam in the oil and start changing it more frequently. Say 5K miles instead.

 

I was thinking of doing just that and flushing it quite a few times but the light still worries me as far as I understand there is only a low pressure sensor on the oil filter housing and at that point I am getting 5 bar so what is switching the light on? So if I carry on running the engine am I going to damage something.

 

I think if it were really not getting good oil pressure, it would have already start clacking like a diesel on the top end.. Sometimes some gunk can get stopped up in the small hole in the sensors, causing the oil pressure readings to be lower than what they really are. You can remove the sensor again and clean it out with good jet of brake clean in the hole and see if that fixes the light issue.

 

Ok a bit of update, got the time today to have a T piece made so that I could keep the sensor and gauge plugged in at the same time. With a bit more confidence in seeing a gauge we took it for a drive.

Started the car and the gauge went straight up to 4.5 bar, drove around the workshop complex getting the car up to temperature, as it started to reach full temp I noticed the needle dropping slowly after a total drive time of about 20 minutes it had reached full temp and eventually dropped to about 1.2 bar at which the "Idiot Light" came on but only once we had parked the car and brought the RPM over 2000.

So this tells me the switch is operating at exactly the correct pressure.

First question would be does this car only monitor oil pressures when the car is above a certain RPM?

And secondly this cant be the oil pump right? Because I have normal pressure at lower temperatures and very low pressure at running temperature. A oil pump either creates flow or it does not, temp and therefore viscosity of the oil should not effect the volume being pumped through the system correct?

Hopefully a little more info for you guys to suss out. Thanks Again.

 

What weight oil are you running? It also could be the Oil Pressure Relief valve dumping too much oil pressure when it gets warm.

 

I hate to tell you Rich03, but I just had a similar issue with my old Audi B5 A4. It has a 2.4 V6 engine and lately, I noticed the transmission started to shift rather hard. Had the transmission serviced (oil change and filter @ $500) and the very day I collected it from the dealer, the oil pressure warning came on. Oil temp got hotter than usual, as much as 125 degrees Celsius.
Took the car back to Audi the next day and after a couple of days diagnosis, they discovered the oil pump was the cause of both the scuffing noise coming from the engine at idle and the warning light and high oil temps. When they removed the sump, there was no blockage on the pickup of the pump nor any sludge evident (my car gets serviced regularly and oil changes are a MUST once a year even with low mileage).
I honestly think your oil pump is the cause of your issues.

 

Hope it got fixed!