Oil pressure light on but mostly at idle....

[rings_of_life]

My aunts car has the dreaded red oil pressure light coming on. She says it comes on when coming to a stop or when the car is idling. She didnt seem to think that its ever on while she accelerating or driving. She said she did notice that it goes off sometimes when going around turns. everything ive been researching is people having problems with it coming on while driving. I havnt had a chance to really check it out yet cause shes always driving it. I told her not to but she dont care. Could this be a possible oil pressure sensor? i told her worse case scenario could be a sludged engine. any insight or ideas would be helpful.

[bez101]

are you sure its the oil preasure warning ?
and not the low oil warning ?
if its the big red warning id have the sump off change pick up pipe
or shes gona end up with a fucked engine

[rings_of_life]

she told me its red and has a picture of an oil can. I told her not to drive it. I just wasnt sure cause everything i was reading was about the light coming on while driving. Like i said above shes only getting it when the car is idling.

[seanf86]

if it goes off around turns it could be low oil level, maybe the level sensor isnt working and the oil level is dangerously low as well, regardless i wouldnt drive it until it gets looked at

[Charles.waite]

If its the red oil light, I'd be surprised that her engine hasn't grenaded yet!

Tell her to take it to a shop immediately. Like yesterday. If she cares about the car she needs to stop driving it immediately.

If its coming on at idle, its likely the engine is starving for oil either because of a clogged pickup screen or low oil level. The fact that it only comes on at idle doesn't matter the red light is indicative of serious problems, its likely shes already caused serious damage to the engine.

[walky_talky20]

It's pretty simple. RED warnings mean STOP. That's actually why they are Red. True Story.

And you are absolutely right, this is a question of whether it's just a bad pressure switch or sludge clogging the pickup tube. An oil pressure gauge would be the tool that tells you which it is.

Based on your Aunt's "don't care" attitude towards getting the car fixed, I can pretty much tell you that it's sludged.

[CKUO]

Same exact problem happened to my car last year. Red warning light came on only when idle or slowing down. Cleaned pick up tube and screen and everything was fine since then.

[beecohen]

It's pretty simple. RED warnings mean STOP. That's actually why they are Red. True Story.

And you are absolutely right, this is a question of whether it's just a bad pressure switch or sludge clogging the pickup tube. An oil pressure gauge would be the tool that tells you which it is.

Based on your Aunt's "don't care" attitude towards getting the car fixed, I can pretty much tell you that it's sludged.

Hi WalkyTalky,

I'm experiencing the Low Oil pressure warning issue with my 2006 A4 Quattro right now (purchased the car 1 1/2 months ago). I had it towed to a mechanic who has been working with audi's for 14 years. He was the first mechanic I spoke to on the phone who questioned replacing the oil pump. He said in all the years I've worked on these cars the oil pumps DO NOT go. If it's gone that far he says they usually do motor rebuilds.

Basically what's going on with the car: Top of the engine is making a rattling noise. Oil pressure was gauged and comes back at 10 psi. There is no engine knocking, there is no smoke. I was very diligent about shutting the car off when the errors came on, except when I was on the highway one night and had to get home, drove with it on for maybe 15 minutes. The mechanic has now taken down the oil pan and discovered that my pickup filter and tube are clogged. He's doing a full replacement including any various gasket's O rings, etc for $600-650 (is this too much?) on top of what he's charged me thus far to take down the oil pan and check out the issue. From what I'm told the part is around $25-50, and I can't imagine this would replacement would take 5 hours... I'm more interested in finding the solution, but obviously I'd like to make sure this is not an unusual amount of $ to pay for this replacement.

SO, what I need to know basically is do I have a chance of salvaging this car if it was just the oil pickup filter/tube being clogged? I noticed earlier you mentioned checking a cam bearing (which I believe you said is the last to receive oil) to know whether the engine is still ok.. I don't believe this was done to the car yet, also he mentioned that he would be initially dropping the oil pan before taking off the valve cover because he didn't believe there to be any evidence up there.. Any guidance on this issue would be great, I'm basically still waiting for the mechanic to receve the pickup tube at this point so he hasn't gone ahead and done this replacement yet.. I look forward to hearing back with some advice! Thank you so much in advance

Thanks,

Brandon

[AudiA4_20T]

Brandon, your description is way too long but yes he is correct the pumps don't go, things just get clogged in the pickup. Clean the pickup and see what happens.

OP, the reason this only happens at idle is because there is the least amount of revolutions spinning the oil pump. When driving, oil pump is rotating 2,3,4x as much to deliver oil. Stop the car, get it checked out

[GOODBYNAAIR]

My light came on and i found this.


on

and after doing oil pressure test I was to low at idle, turning the light on. Thats bits of my CCT in the pick up. fixed and cleaned new CCT 23-24 psi at hot idle. (oil pressure gauge very helpful)