Oil pressure

shifty_uk

shifty_uk

shifty_uk

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So, I bought an audi A3 last week from an independent audi dealer. It's perfect, been absolutely spot on!

However, tonight I wanted to really see what it could do on a quiet strip of dual carriageway. Stuck it into sports mode and blasted it!

Coming off the slip road an oil pressure warning message came up on the dashboard. :(

Does this mean I've ragged it too much? Will letting the engine cool overnight and topping up the oil suffice or am I stuffed? :(

Very worried here!
 
2.0T FSI.

I just went and checked the oil for a second time and the dipstick is up to the full mark so it has plenty of oil by the looks of it. After checking a second time I started the engine again and all seems fine, no warning lights.

I'll check it again in the morning and make sure the dipstick is fine, maybe add a little more oil.

Could this be because I pushed it a bit too far? Possibly okay after the engine cools down?

Just looking for some reassurance. It had a full service at an audi specialist prior to me buying it.
 
An oil pressure warning is bad news - there isn't an innocent explanation for it. Either its low on oil, or if as you say this isnt the case, something is wrong with the engine. A healthy engine shouldn't suffer from oil pressure so low it triggers a warning light simply from booting it on a dual carriageway.
 
What fox said!!

The only reason for that is low oil, a dodgy sensor or faulty oil pump. Get it looked at urgently.
 
If it was low oil level you should have had a level warning long before it got low enough to lose oil pressure.

There's no reason why you shouldn't be able to use every drop of performance in any modern car. It shouldn't be possible to push it "too far" unless you downshift at 7000rpm or something.
 
what age and mileage is the engine?

the later 1.8t engines on "longlife" servicing block their oil pump pick up with fragments of burned oil

when you rag the car the oil thins and due to the severely restricted flow you get low oil pressure warning
 
Double checked the oil this morning. Level is spot on, coolant, start-up, everything else, spot on.

There's slight doubt in my mind so I'll get it to the Audi chaps on Monday.

I did push it very hard last night, maybe too hard.
 
shifty_uk said:
I did push it very hard last night, maybe too hard.
Click to expand...

You were on a dual carriageway and it has a rev limiter. Unless you were driving like some sort of ham-fisted-chav then you shouldn't be able to drive it 'too hard' in those circumstances.

If you actually did abuse it so much that the oil pressure light was a natural conclusion to whatever you did, perhaps you should get rid of it before you kill yourself or it - though frankly I very much doubt this is what you did and I suspect the car has some sort of fault.
 
shifty_uk said:
I did push it very hard last night, maybe too hard.
Click to expand...

These aren't particularly fragile engines, i'd be amazed if you drove it 'too hard', unless as someone said above, you were downshifting when already at the redline or something incredibly daft.

Simply giving it bootfull on the dual carriageway isn't going to (or shouldn't) cause anything odd to happen.
 
If driving it like that caused these issues then there's something very wrong with it anyway. Unless you massively over-revved it by changing to the wrong gear, or hammered it from stone cold, there isn't really anything you can do wrong just by 'driving it hard'.
 
No matter how much abuse i give my car on the public road i can never get the oil temp much above about 100c where as after a hard session on track i can easily see 115-120 so basically theres no way you could cause issues by driving it too hard in on the road.

My bet is the oil pump is blocked with rubbish and what stick you did give it thinned the oil enough to trigger the sensor, get it checked ASAP before it gets very very expensive.
 
Hot day, 5w-30 oil, A/C running, ragged hard, oil light on lift off, entirely possible the oil light popped on due to partially blocked pick up and thin oil.
 
Pull the sump and clean the pick up, carry out a oil and filter change with flush and treatment and it will probably be fine.

Be sure to clean the bottom of the sump in case it has a film of muck stuck in there. See quite a few VAG's with oil lights popping on more often then not its the pick up and unless driven for a while with the warning light on we have yet to have one do any actual engine damage. The sensor unit if fitted to the bottom of the sump isn't fantastically reliable either but I forget off hand which years and engines that gets fitted on.
 
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