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  1. #1
    Veteran Member Four Rings SlickFix's Avatar
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    DIY: B6 A4 3.0 AVK oil pump screen cleaning to cure the red oil pressure light

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    The red oil pressure light has started to come back on again in Wifey's Avant, and since I already replaced the oil pressure sensor, it was time to drop that oil pan and see what exactly the state of the oil was on the bottom end. The good news is that this job is a light 3 out of 10 on the PITA meter.

    The tools needed:

    -Flat head screwdriver(to remove the belly pan screws, and to help pry off the oil pan).
    - 1/4" ratchet
    - 10mm socket
    - 1/4" 4" extension
    - 10mm wrench
    - Rigid putty knife
    - Dead blow hammer
    - Ultra Black RTV gasket maker
    - Lots of rags & paper towels
    - Can of brake cleaner
    - Spray bottle of Simple Green or other similar cleaner






    Alright, step one is to remove the belly pan on your car, and to drain the oil and change the oil filter. I won't include pics of this, because if you can't change oil in your car, you shouldn't be attempting this repair.


    Here is our oil pan. Notice that we have an oil level sensor on one side of the pan.







    Using the flathead screwdriver, gently pry off the oil level sensor by placing the tip of the screwdriver into the area surrounded by yellow, while pulling outward with your other hand. Tuck the sensor's loose wiring into the bumper somewhere so it's out of the way. Then, remove the three 10mm bolts from the oil level sensor and remove the sensor from the oil pan and place aside.






    Using the 10 mm wrench(or 10mm socket), remove the nut that holds the hard line bracket.







    Pop the hard line out of the bracket. You will need to move this line in order to access the oil pan bolts that lie below it.








    Remove the 10mm oil pan bolts, making sure to pull down the hard line in order to gain access to the bolts below it. The oil pan won't fall down, because it's held on by the original gasket.








    Using the dead blow hammer, tap the putty knife under a corner of the oil pan. Then use the flat head screwdriver to pry off the oil pan.








    Carefully remove the oil pan. Here we see what mine looked like.









    Yuck, some sludge was embedded into the pan on one side. Some other burnt oil was located on other parts.










    And here we finally get to see the bottom of the oil pump, and our first look at the small screen on the oil pickup. It's about the size of a silver dollar, and was smaller than I thought it would be. No real visible gunk obstructing the screen.








    A close look at the screen.









    Using the brake cleaner, spray generous portions onto the oil pan and clean it up using the paper towels.









    No photo for this next step, but I sprayed the brake cleaner up into the screen, and a huge blob of oil fell down. I kept spraying brake cleaner into the screen until there was no more oil pouring down. I suspect the first couple of blobs were responsible for my red oil pressure light coming on.


    Clean the old gasket material off of the oil pan cover and the bottom of the block, so you have a nice, clean surface for your new gasket.




    Finally, create a new gasket on the oil pan using the black RTV gasket maker. Make sure to spread gasket maker everywhere that the pan will contact the bottom of the block, including where the bolts will go.






    Install the oil pan back onto the block, being careful to get it aligned with the holes and the plastic parts hanging down from the oil pump. Install the oil pan bolts finger tight, then wait another hour before tightening the bolts to about 20 ft. lbs of torque. Just make sure it's snug and reasonably tight, but don't go gorilla and crank them down.

    Install the hard pipe bracket back onto the pan, and pop the hard pipe back into the bracket.

    Replace the belly pan.

    The RTV gasket will be dry in an hour, but will take 24 hrs to cure, so I would leave the car sit overnight and then fill it full of new oil in the morning.


    That's it! Hopefully, cleaning out the oil pump screen will solve the red light coming on. If it doesn't, then it's time to check the oil pressure using an oil pressure tester.
    Last edited by SlickFix; 05-18-2014 at 05:28 PM.
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  2. #2
    Veteran Member Three Rings Lornnn's Avatar
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    Nice writeup, Slick

    I haven't experienced any oil pressure issues with my 3.0 BGN yet but this looks simple enough to do for preventative maintenance

    Good work

  3. #3
    Veteran Member Four Rings SlickFix's Avatar
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    Thanks, Lornnn, it was really straight-forward, and would make for some easy preventative maintenance.

    In my case, only time will tell if this was the ultimate solution to my oil pressure warnings. but that big blob of oil that came out of the screen with the first couple of blasts lead me to believe that was the problem.

    If nothing else, it gives everyone with the 3.0 an opportunity to see the oil pump screen close up.
    Last edited by SlickFix; 05-18-2014 at 06:21 AM.
    His: 2012 Moonlight Blue Metallic S5 Prestige
    Hers: 2014 Lava Gray Metallic Q5 2.0T
    Son's: 2005.5 Imola Yellow B7 S4 4.2 Sedan
    19" B8 S5 Peelers

  4. #4
    Active Member One Ring
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    Excellent write up, curious if the problem has reoccured since you have done this? I had a problem today where my Low oil pressure light came on, I was a good distance from home and a local mechanic suggested an oil change to see if it would cure it long for me to get home. It did get me home without the Low OP light coming back on; but now i figure its only a matter of time before it come back on. This seems like the best place to start in tracking this problem down.

  5. #5
    Veteran Member Four Rings Spike00513's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Justin2211 View Post
    Excellent write up, curious if the problem has reoccured since you have done this? I had a problem today where my Low oil pressure light came on, I was a good distance from home and a local mechanic suggested an oil change to see if it would cure it long for me to get home. It did get me home without the Low OP light coming back on; but now i figure its only a matter of time before it come back on. This seems like the best place to start in tracking this problem down.
    What oil are you using? Is it at the correct level? Did the low OP light (red, not yellow) come on in a set situation? Maybe it would happen when taking hard turns?

  6. #6
    Senior Member Two Rings junxing's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Justin2211 View Post
    Excellent write up, curious if the problem has reoccured since you have done this? I had a problem today where my Low oil pressure light came on, I was a good distance from home and a local mechanic suggested an oil change to see if it would cure it long for me to get home. It did get me home without the Low OP light coming back on; but now i figure its only a matter of time before it come back on. This seems like the best place to start in tracking this problem down.
    This is something to look at as well, the oil check valves were something that Spike replaced on his 3.0.
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  7. #7
    Veteran Member Four Rings Audi 4 Life's Avatar
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    great thread, thanks for posting this.
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  8. #8
    Active Member One Ring
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    Quote Originally Posted by Spike00513 View Post
    What oil are you using? Is it at the correct level? Did the low OP light (red, not yellow) come on in a set situation? Maybe it would happen when taking hard turns?
    I use castrol full synthetic 5W 30. I used this when I had my 2000 S4 and never had an issue with it. As soon as the light came on I pulled over and checked the oil level, It was just about on the minimum line but still fine, I did however top it off and got back in the car and started driving again. within about 1 minute the low OP came back on for 5 seconds then went out for about 15 seconds and kept doing that until i was able to get off the next exit which was about half mile away and went to a gas station and turned it off. I got an oil cahnge at a quick lube shop and they supposedly used pennzoil, 5W 30 full synthetic. But i figured i would be doing this process this weekend so I'm not worried about what they used.. but since the oil has been changed The Low OP light never came back on, I had a 50 mile back home at about 70 mph on the highway.. I thought it was an odd (cure) fix.

  9. #9
    Active Member One Ring
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    Quote Originally Posted by junxing View Post
    This is something to look at as well, the oil check valves were something that Spike replaced on his 3.0.
    Junxing this is something I will look into also, I am worried that if it is a sludge problem that it could have made its way up into the engine.. Praying for it to only be in the pan but i know that's pretty optimistic

  10. #10
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    So I finally got my car on a lift today and took the oil pan off, turns out it was perfectly clean. Sprayed the pickup tube with break cleaner and only liquid came out, no sludge or debris or anything. I still haven't had the Low OP light come back on since the original time it happened. Is it possible it could have been from using a cheap filter? I feel like if it was the oil pump going it would have happened again in the past 2 weeks. I've been driving it for about 20 miles a day with no issues.

  11. #11
    Veteran Member Four Rings imnuts's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Justin2211 View Post
    So I finally got my car on a lift today and took the oil pan off, turns out it was perfectly clean. Sprayed the pickup tube with break cleaner and only liquid came out, no sludge or debris or anything. I still haven't had the Low OP light come back on since the original time it happened. Is it possible it could have been from using a cheap filter? I feel like if it was the oil pump going it would have happened again in the past 2 weeks. I've been driving it for about 20 miles a day with no issues.
    Yes, using the wrong filter can cause low oil pressure. There is an internal safety valve in the oil filters, and many open to bypass the filter at a much lower pressure than what the OEM (or OEM equivalent) filter is set too. There is a thread in the B6 section with a discussion on this for the 1.8T, so I'd imagine that the 3.0 would be similar.

  12. #12
    Veteran Member Three Rings 19jdog's Avatar
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    I got the low oil pressure light twice this past week, usually happened between 2 and 3 thousand rpm. Above 3 thousand it was fine. 20180324_112810.jpeg20180324_112856.jpeg

    I sprayed brake cleaner up in the screen area like Slick did, and a big blob of oil came down. Hopefully the cleaning will fix the problem.

    20180324_120002.jpeg
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  13. #13
    Veteran Member Three Rings
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    I just used kreen on mine. And use mmo the last 1k before my oil changes every 7k miles.

    I used only Mann filters and have the nipple set shallow so cheap filters often can't even screw on.

  14. #14
    Veteran Member Four Rings SJorge3442's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by 19jdog View Post
    I got the low oil pressure light twice this past week, usually happened between 2 and 3 thousand rpm. Above 3 thousand it was fine. 20180324_112810.jpeg20180324_112856.jpeg

    I sprayed brake cleaner up in the screen area like Slick did, and a big blob of oil came down. Hopefully the cleaning will fix the problem.

    20180324_120002.jpeg
    Damn. What was your oil change scheduling like? Also, have you ever ran any of the BG oil treatment products? This has got me worried about my 3.0 even though I haven't ever seen the oil pressure light.
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  15. #15
    Established Member Two Rings
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    The same problem on my car now.Could you please post the pics again,because no pics appear now.....Thank you!

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