K guys, I need some insight and advice. My '02 A4 Quattro 1.8T threw a low oil pressure light. I flatbedded it to Sewickley Audi and told them the light was on and flashing, but only at high rpm (80mph = 3800rpm). Lower rpm it goes out. My opinion, the pickup screen is plugged.
They ran it and got no light. They pulled the switch for the light and put a gauge in, ran it til the fans came on and checked the gauge. "At idle - 1.4 bar, 2000rpm - 3 bar, 3500rpm - 4 bar. Found no problem with oil pressure." They told me the only problem they found was the oil level was low and they had to add a quart. It was maybe 1/8" below the full mark on the dipstick when I took it to them. They told me to come and get it and charged me for a quart of oil, and labor for their time and services.
When I got it home I checked the oil and it was nearly a quart overfull. I asked them about this and they said Audi had decided that there was supposed to be more oil in the crankcase than they wanted there when they originally designed it. I never got any correspondence to that effect.
A couple of days later, the light came on again and after a few miles it started making noise under the hood which I determined to be lifters not pumped up and/or the cam chain slapping the cover or something like that, anyway the noise was under the valve cover.
Back to the dealer it went. They called me after a couple of days and said no light, no noise, but it's putting "white smoke" out the tail pipes. They thought maybe head gasket, but it was the end of the day, so they parked it.
The next day they pulled it out to drive it again, then the clutch went out. Told me they'd have to replace the clutch ($1300) in order to drive it and continue to diagnose the motor/oil pressure problems.
I made an appointment with another mechanic and flatbedded it home yesterday.

Today I started it. No light, no noise, the clutch pedal has no resistance and won't disengage. I checked the oil and it's clean, but the car is parked on an uphill grade so I couldn't get an accurate reading on the dipstick.

I haven't yet located the reservoir for the hydraulic clutch to see if there's any fluid in it. I think the "white smoke" that the dealer said was coming out of the pipes (but admittedly only sometimes) is actually blue smoke, which might be the excess oil that they overfilled into my crankcase burning out through the cat. I told the dealer that I thought the oil pressure problem is a plugged pickup screen, and he said, "Yeah, they do have problems with that."

My mechanic is really good, and won't rape his customers on money. That said, he can't get me in til Dec. 6th.

I moved recently and don't yet have garage space to work on it in, but I'd like to see what I can do with it between now and then. If anybody can tell me where the reservoir is for the clutch, or give me any insight on what you think my problems might be with my car, I'd surely appreciate it. How much of a hassle are the clutch mc and lines to replace? Do I have to pull the transmission to get to the clutch slave cylinder? Which of them is most likely to go bad? How much of the car has to be disassembled to get the oil pan and the pickup off? Does it sound like I'm getting a little run-around from the dealer?

Thanks guys...keepin' my fingers crossed.

 

you do not need to take anything out to get to the slave cylinder, it should be on the top left of the transmission near where it mounts to the engine, the brake fluid and clutch fluid are the same thing and they both run off the same reservior, the brake one. not sure about the clutch lines, to get the oil pan off and the pick up tube you have to disassemble your front suspension to get to the bolts on the back of the pan. stealerships are lazy and cause headaches, best bet is to find a vw/audi specialist or a really trusted mechanic who can work his way around an audi

 

Thanks for the info. I have a really good mechanic that I usually deal with. The only reason I took it to the dealer is because they put an oil pump in it 26K miles ago and I thought that if my problem had to do with that, they could take care of the costs.

The diesel sound you had comes from the lifters not being pumped up due to low oil pressure. Did your new oil pickup totally solve your problem, and was there any other damage you had to deal with?

 

The clutch resevoir and the brake fluid resevoir are the same. They share.

The slave cylinder is really easy to replace, and yes they do go bad. Theres a rubber grommet that hold the plastic push rod in place. The bad thing its the only thing that holds it in place. When that rubber gets worn and tears that push rod can come out of pocket and no longer engage the fork properly.

In the dealers defense, I have had this happen before. Where the light isn't on when i drive it in. But i'm surprised the went to replace the oil pump without treating it as a sludge candidate.

You need to pull your valve cover and your cam caps, one at a time and look for excessive wear.

The mechanical oil pressure test messures oil pressure at the bottom end. The first signs of sludge is ticking from the lifters and low oil pressure light.