Hey Everyone,,

I got the dreaded low oil pressure light on the car a while back and parked it until the weather thawed enough for me to tackle the oil pan removal / screen replacment hoping to have salvaged the engine.

I found enough tech articles on here to get the job done yesterday afternoon, raised the motor, lowered the engine cradle enough to get to all the bolts, got the two through the little windows back by the trans..

Everything but ONE stupid stud and nut. I should have taken a pic last night but forgot and will try to describe it as best I can.

Other than the 5mm hex small bolts around the pan, there are some (I think it was 15 or 16mm) bolts on the back of the pan. All of those came out nice enough and there is one left which looks different. It is a stud coming from what looks to be through the pan with a nut on it. Same size as the rest of the bolts and I was able to get a socket on there and get it loose.

The problem is that it just spins, I can even spin it with my fingers and turn but it just stays in the same spot spinning. Almost like it is a bolt going through with a nut on one side, but I cannot see or fell any opposite end to put a wrench on to hold while the nut turns.

If you are under the car it is on the lower drivers side of the pan.. If I can get this thing off, the pan will pop right out! Its already loose and just wiggling on there....

Anyone see this before?

 

Use a 5/8 stubby wrench and a 16mm wrench. Both have to be open end wrench's, one short one long works best. It is a bolt that goes in from the rear of the car, towards the front of the car. It goes through the transmission and engine oil pan. Once on the other side of the oil pan it is an either a 16mm or 5/8 nut. Either size wrench will work on either side of this bolt. I planned on writing a tutorial on the oil pump swap, with vivid detail, due to me having just finished this exact procedure yesterday evening. Good luck.

 

Awesome! That's what I was hoping to hear! I know the nut on the side facing the motor is 16mm nut like the rest of the bolts, I'll see if I can find a shorter wrench or somthing to hold the back side.

When you replaced your oil pump, did you do it because of potential build up on the pickup line?

I was looking around ecs tuning has a complete sludge kit with pump, pickup tube, oil, filter, and pan gasket.

Not sure if I want to go that entire route, or just see if the pickup tube needs to be replaced, the pressure seemed alright before so not sure if it is worth replacing the whole thing. Although for another $40 it may be good insurance so I don't have to deal with this replacment again..

Definitely getting the pan gasket instead of trying to go the sealant route!

 

Ok being a noob, but! which engine do you have?

 

Oh crap, sorry about that! I didn't even think to post that.

1.8t engine in the car. My bad

 

what year and what alpha code is your 1.8?

 

Umm you say you want to go with the gasket route instead of having to deal with sealant. In my audi book for the a4 b5 model it says even if you have the gasket to spread a light coating of sealant on front and rear sealing oil carriers, i think it called them. So i spread some sealant on the rear and front on both the oil pan and motor. If you look at the bottom of the motor you can kind of understand why. There are deep grooves on the sides of the front and rear of motor, the rear main seal is one of them. I did purchase the ecs tuning kit. Next to some black permatex sealant i bought at carquest it has everything you need. I did it to bring oil pressure back to normal. Motor would tick if left idling for a little bit after warming up also beeped at me when cruising in 5th gear below 2500rpm. Aeb 98. I will like i said previously later today try and write something that gives you some better detail than most write ups i have read and used :]

 

It's a 2001, not sure how to tell the alpha code, but I am thinking just based on what I read online that it is an ATW code.. Not 100% sure how to verify that though....

I guess the only reason why I was thinking of using the gasket instead of the permatex alone was what I used on previous applicaitons (small block chevy's) I always did put a thin film around the gasket top and bottom too prior to putting the pan on.

I'll totally take your advise and use that on the front and rear of the pan too!

Just out of curiosity what was the ecs tuning kit you bought?

 

Same one that I found here?

Audi B5 A4 Quattro 1.8T > Search > ES7579 > ES#7579 ECS Oil Sludge Repair Kit - 058198021

 

for you that would be correct. You could go with the other one that does not include the sealant and just buy your own. Atw does sound correct.