Hello,
Latest in a long line of problems on my 1995 cabriolet is apparently the oil pressure.
The oil temperature gauge never really goes up, whilst the pressure goes up to max (5 bar) after a short time but doesn't go down again. And that with the correct amount of oil in it or none at all apparently.
I previously read that the gauge senders can be faulty commonly on these cars so ignored it.
However the other day the oil level light came on and bleeped - thankfully at the best possible time only twenty seconds away from home so I risked it and got back.
To find no oil left in the sump and leaks coming from the sump plug, filter and around the sump gasket.
The sump plug looks new so possibly the whole sump was replaced by a previous owner, perhaps with the same issue or perhaps using a cheap paper gasket.
But this has made me wonder - despite not driving the car a huge deal in the few years I've owned it (due to fixing many other problems) I've never had any leaks before and the oil wasn't changed all that recently so is the high pressure reading real and something causing the oil to blow past the sump gasket, plug and filter? Or did I simply not tighten the plug and filter enough? Which seems unlike me, the plug certainly is in very tight and unless the washer is bad feels like I might strip the thread if I went any further. The sump gasket was likely already oily.
I put (some) more oil in the car and a bit of cardboard under it to test - just overnight it had leaked quite a bit more, probably exactly what I'd put in it. So perhaps not an engine pressure issue? Or did high pressure blow it in the first place?
If the gauge sender is faulty then presumably it isn't the cause of any problems, only false readings? And safe to ignore providing I fix the leak?
Is there a breather pipe for the abk engine which could be blocked? If so where?
New high quality rubber/steel sump gasket on the way... looks a pig to get the sump off ☹️
Sigh... I must be the only person who can drive a 40 year old unrestored Alfa Romeo perfectly reliably yet not be able to drive a modern(ish) Audi for more than 100 miles before some new problem cropping up. Defies all logic!