The dreaded flashing oil can. 1.8t 190 Q

[duffy78]

There i was tootling along the M62, well not exactly tootling i was certainly doing sum, and the red oil can warning appears on the Dis with oil pressure written there for good measure.<br />
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Oh fiddlesticks says I, oil pickup pipe *******. So I pull of the motorway quick sharp and turn the car off. Bear in mind im still 45 miles from home. Start the car after it's cooled down somewhat and the oil can does not appear, so i tentitively rev it to 2k and still no oil can. I'm stuck in the middle of nowhere so I make the hard decision to drive home. Now I've only had the car 2 months and the plan was always to get the pickup changed as a bit of preventitive maintenance but i had put it off based on the fact that the car had been serviced yearly and over the last 5 years had had the oil changed at 7k intervals. So i used this fact coupled with that I had recently changed the oil and added the larger oil filter within the last 3 weeks as the basis that if i took it easy i would be able to drive home.<br />
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So off i set keeping it at or below 2k revs (not easy on a motorway) listening for any sort of unusual engine noise or the oil light coming back on. Luckily got home without any further incident.<br />
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So it's going to my local trusted indy tomorrow to get the pick up pipe replaced, I was wondering wether it would be worth getting the oil pump changed at the same time? Or can i assume that the pump is ok?

[duffy78]

indy quoted me 180 plus vat to replace the pump, oil pickup pipe, clean out the sump, new oil and filter.

He must be confident he can get the sump off without removing the subframe.

[steveheather]

Blimey - that's cheap. I'm guessing the oil pump alone will be a third of that.

I had mine done on my 2004 190 S-Line at Crashers place in Nottingham last year as a preventative maintenance measure. I know what they had to do and it was significantly more expensive than that and I didn't replace the oil pump, only the pick-up strainer pipe. I can only think that the job in your case doesn't include any heavy cleaning of the oil pan when it is removed as it will most likely be pretty carboned up and that alone takes a good hour of cleaning with Nitromors or similar to get it nice and shiny again.
You may be right in thinking that they are not planning to drop the subframe to do the job. Of course, new techniques are perfected all the time but replacement of the sump pan into a tight space without smearing the gasket sealant all over will be a real test of dexterity. I'll be interested to hear from you how they complete the job.

In addition, once I had got home from Crashers, I took the valve cover off and that also needed the Nitromors treatment as it was well cacked up.I also cleaned out all the breather pipework around the valve cover as it was partially blocked with emulsified goo.

I have since followed the practice of cooling my oil and turbo at the end of a hot run by idling the engine for a few minutes, keeping clean synthetic oil in the sump well up to the max on the dipstick and using the larger oil filter specified. After one year and several thousand miles, the inside of my cam cover still looks nice and clean so I'm hoping the rest is benefiting also.

Best Regards and good luck with the procedure, Steve.

[duffy78]

I've used the guy for a lot of years, this will be the 4th car that I've had through their, he's already done the rear diff oil for me as soon as I got it, £40 for that.

I was always going to get the pickup done and prob the pump as well, this warning light has just hurried that process along. He quoted £115 + vat just for the pick up and cleaning of the sump. We've provisionally agreed just to get the sludge out the sump

The pump is £65 part only with no extra labour as its the same process to do the pick up. It's all just a quote atm so we'll wait and see how much it ends up.

He knows the car so I can only assume he's pretty confident that he can get the sump off and back on with the subframe in place. I've seen other people on the net do it that way do I know it's possible.

I'm interested to hear what you did with the breather pipes. I was planning on replacing as much of the vacuum system as I can so would appreciate you letting me know what parts you swapped out.

[steveheather]

Hi again. In respect of the breather pipes, it was mostly just a case of dismantling and cleaning out as they were mostly in good condition and some, of course, metal. If I remember correctly, the only parts I swapped out were some of the rubber elbows that joined sections of pipe and I changed all of the Audi hose clips for stainless steel worm drive clips - not as pretty but easier to get on and off in the future. You will know which bits to swap out once you start dismantling - I made temporary repairs using silicone or self-amalgamating tape while I waited for new parts coming.

Nice to have a local bloke who you can trust to be pragmatic. I must say that I was really pleased to get mine done and now have great confidence in the engine. The 1.8t doesn't seem to have many 'issues' but the oil pickup issue is probably the commonest threat to long term longevity. I plan to have mine checked again in another 60k miles, if I still have the vehicle then.

Steve

[duffy78]

Well just picked the A4, the mechanic showed me the pickup and it was clogged up with not much room for any flow. The sump also had plenty of thick gunk in it.

The checked the oil pressure prior to doing the work and it was well within spec so it just goes to show that there's no way to check for this issue without taking the sump off.

Also this car only spent two years on AVS with the rest of the time spent having the oil changed every 7k miles. So the moral of the storey is that if you've got a high mile 1.8t then you need to get this work done ASAP.

It was slightly more than quoted, the bill came in at £182 + vat.

Whilst there I got a quote for a new clutch, £360 for a LUK clutch kit fitted, any good?

[steveheather]

Good to get the oil pickup job done. I was advised that it should be considered as a 60k to 70k routine operation.

Conventional wisdom seems to be that you should have a new DMF when getting the clutch done as both jobs require the same labour - a bit like renewing the water pump when you have a new cambelt.

Steve

[duffy78]

So it looks like my oil pressure issue due to the sludge has caused some additional problems, most likely with the turbo. The car is noticably down on power now so at present am assuming that the turbo bearings have been damaged due to lack of oil for the short time the oil pressure was down. I'm a bit pee'd off tbh.

Car going back to my local indy next week to try and find out exactly what the problem is and how much £££'s it's going to cost.

Does anybody know anywhere to get K03s turbos from?