Oil pump or chain?

[ShortyKC]

This morning I went to start my car after about 2 weeks of siting. It was 15 degrees here this morning. The car started normal but i noticed that it was louder than normal. I figure it was due to having sat for 2 weeks, which it normally doesn't do.

Like an idiot I went inside and poured myself a coffee and came back outside. The noise sounded worse and real bad so I quickly ran to the car and check the instrument cluster …no lights telling me anything is wrong. I rev the motor slightly and the low oil pressure light come on! I shut the car off.

The oil is full and has only about 500 miles on it.

Any easy way to determine if the pump is bad or if it broke the chain? Is there something else it could be?

[mec]

This morning I went to start my car after about 2 weeks of siting. It was 15 degrees here this morning. The car started normal but i noticed that it was louder than normal. I figure it was due to having sat for 2 weeks, which it normally doesn't do.

Like an idiot I went inside and poured myself a coffee and came back outside. The noise sounded worse and real bad so I quickly ran to the car and check the instrument cluster …no lights telling me anything is wrong. I rev the motor slightly and the low oil pressure light come on! I shut the car off.

The oil is full and has only about 500 miles on it.

Any easy way to determine if the pump is bad or if it broke the chain? Is there something else it could be?

If the chain broke you would get 0 oil pressure all the time, so most likely not the chain, could be a clogging issue, under idle the pump sucks up less volume so it doesn't clog, but when you accelerate the pump spins faster, tries to suck in more volume, but can't because the net is pretty clogged up....

That's my attempt to diagnose it, but it could be a lot of different things. I know we had one member on here who's oil pump gear came loose from the crankshaft....could be lots of things

[ShortyKC]

If the chain broke you would get 0 oil pressure all the time, so most likely not the chain, could be a clogging issue, under idle the pump sucks up less volume so it doesn't clog, but when you accelerate the pump spins faster, tries to suck in more volume, but can't because the net is pretty clogged up....

That's my attempt to diagnose it, but it could be a lot of different things. I know we had one member on here who's oil pump gear came loose from the crankshaft....could be lots of things

Thanks mec. That makes sense but car sounds like its getting no oil at idle to. Sounds real bad and that is what alerted me to the problem. Do our cars only look at oil pressure above idle speed? Cause as soon as I blipped the throttle is when it showed low oil pressure warning.

After I shut the car off and let it sit for a few minutes, I restarted it and same thing, sounds like no oil ,but no warning light at idle. only under the slightest throttle.

Thanks again

[yeoj112689]

Do our cars only look at oil pressure above idle speed?

What Mec said is the oil amour requested at idle is so low that it may pass enough thru but when more is requested only a little amount can get thru so then it shows the code.

At idle

==(oil)== > (Screen) > ===(components) Means the oils is getting enough

at speed

========
==(oil)=== > (screen) > == (components) means not enough oil and light!
========

[ShortyKC]

I understand what you guys are saying. The oil amount at idle was obvoulsy not suffcient as it was making a ton of noise at idle(suspect it was valve clatter from lack of oil…sounded like shaking a tin can with ballbearings in it). So maybe it was getting enough oil to not trip the warning light..but still to low to prevent excess valve noise and a dry condition.

To complicate the matter more, I just tried the car again. Started it and it made a bunch of valve noise but then started to go away after a few seconds. Gave a little bit of throttle and no light. Seems to have pressure and ran fine. Ran it for a while and went through the rpm a little after it warmed up some. Sounds and acts like nothings wrong now.

You guys are correct….I can rule out the chain and it sounds like a clog issue. I will be pulling the pan to take a look.

Thanks !

[Charles.waite]

I understand what you guys are saying. The oil amount at idle was obvoulsy not suffcient as it was making a ton of noise at idle(suspect it was valve clatter from lack of oil…sounded like shaking a tin can with ballbearings in it). So maybe it was getting enough oil to not trip the warning light..but still to low to prevent excess valve noise and a dry condition.

To complicate the matter more, I just tried the car again. Started it and it made a bunch of valve noise but then started to go away after a few seconds. Gave a little bit of throttle and no light. Seems to have pressure and ran fine. Ran it for a while and went through the rpm a little after it warmed up some. Sounds and acts like nothings wrong now.

You guys are correct….I can rule out the chain and it sounds like a clog issue. I will be pulling the pan to take a look.

Thanks !

I think our oil pressure sensor only reads at speed above idle, but I'm not certain.

Regardless, I would have it towed to a shop that can stick an oil pressure gauge on there and see what is going on. You REALLY don't want to mess around with an engine with oil pressure problems. Just ask almost every BT guy in this section...

You could try driving it I suppose, but if it were me, I'd not mess around.

[mec]

My oil pressure sensor reads at idle, I've had it go off while just parked.

[diond]

I'm having the exact same issue with by B7 A4 2007.

Low oïl pressure switch came ON when driving and oïl level is fine. I parked the car in my garage and did a lot of checks:

- I Removed oïl from the engine. Found very small metallic particules in the oïl filter housing. Not good...
- I Dropped the oïl pan and found nothing there. The oïl pan is very vey clean and also the pickup tube is very clean.
- I inspected the oïl pump & balance shaft module and looks like OK. The chain is well tightened on the 2 gears. I cannot have access from there to the oïl gear on the crankshaft to check loose but I assume it is fine since I have checked the tension of the chain and there is no loose.
- I removed the head cover and took a look to the cams & other components. Everything is in good shape.

I put back all the parts in place and I am waiting for a M10 fitting to connect a oïl pressure gage on the block and see what is the real reading, cause I still don't know what going on here. And I am a little bit concern by those metallic particles I have found. It must come from somewhere. After I confirm the oïl pressure value with a gage, I will take a look at the rod bearings and make sure everything is OK. Does anyone know how to remove the balance shaft module from the block in order to have access to the crankshaft?

ShortyKC, do you have news on your side? Looks like we have the same issue at the same time. Please let me know.

[mec]

Once the oil pan is off, use a torx to remove the oil gear from the bs, then pull the chain out of the way. Then just remove all the screws you see, I rink it's like 10 -10mm bolts and one triple square m10. It's pretty straight forward if you are down there.

[diond]

Ok thanks. Is there any precautions when reinstalling the balance shaft? I have heard about calibrating it but I assume that if I take care that bs does nt turn during desinstallation/reinstallation, I should be fine. Can you confirm?

Does the rod caps bolts need to be replace by new ones when I simply unscrew these to look into the cap bearings?

[mec]

Ok thanks. Is there any precautions when reinstalling the balance shaft? I have heard about calibrating it but I assume that if I take care that bs does nt turn during desinstallation/reinstallation, I should be fine. Can you confirm?

Does the rod caps bolts need to be replace by new ones when I simply unscrew these to look into the cap bearings?

The balance shaft has a tdc mark. So set crank to tdc, and balance shaft then put the chain on.

Rod bolts are reusable, main bolts are not.

[ShortyKC]

I'm having the exact same issue with by B7 A4 2007.

Low oïl pressure switch came ON when driving and oïl level is fine. I parked the car in my garage and did a lot of checks:

- I Removed oïl from the engine. Found very small metallic particules in the oïl filter housing. Not good...
- I Dropped the oïl pan and found nothing there. The oïl pan is very vey clean and also the pickup tube is very clean.
- I inspected the oïl pump & balance shaft module and looks like OK. The chain is well tightened on the 2 gears. I cannot have access from there to the oïl gear on the crankshaft to check loose but I assume it is fine since I have checked the tension of the chain and there is no loose.
- I removed the head cover and took a look to the cams & other components. Everything is in good shape.

I put back all the parts in place and I am waiting for a M10 fitting to connect a oïl pressure gage on the block and see what is the real reading, cause I still don't know what going on here. And I am a little bit concern by those metallic particles I have found. It must come from somewhere. After I confirm the oïl pressure value with a gage, I will take a look at the rod bearings and make sure everything is OK. Does anyone know how to remove the balance shaft module from the block in order to have access to the crankshaft?

ShortyKC, do you have news on your side? Looks like we have the same issue at the same time. Please let me know.

Diond, Sorry to hear you are having the same issue.

No, I unfortunatly have not had time to pull the oil pan to see what going on in there. I have been driving another vehicle in the mean time. I plan to order a replacement gasket and do that shortly.

I did take the car out for its first drive since the "incident". Sounds fine and ran great. No codes and motors made no excessive noise and didnt act badly.

Diand, so how many times has the low oil pressure light come on while driving?

Others - I am thinking a Vagcom would tell us the real time oil pressure at idle and under power correct?

[diond]

You don't need a replacement gasket. Oil pan on these car does not have. You need a sealant. My car rans less than 2 minutes with the low oil pressure light ON. I don't think a Vagcom will tell us about the oil pressure cause the oil pressure switch is an ON/OFF switch. That is why I will install in few days a oil pressure gage in parallel with the oil pressure switch. This way, I will have a real oil pressure value. I am fitting for fittings to complete the setup.

[diond]

I got my M10 to NPT fitting to connect oil pressure gage on the engine and see what the real pressure is. I will install it soon.

Because I have removed the oil pan just before and let it uninstall for a while, do you think guys I need to prime the oil circuit before starting the engine or it should prime by itself? Please, advice.

[diond]

I installed the oil pressure gage, fill oil in the engine and start it.

Oil pressure looks normal: @ 70 degC at 2000RPM, oil press= 60 PSI. According to Bentley manual,
it should be 39 to 65 PSI at 2000RPM and 80 degC. So, my oil pressure is right within spec.

Interresting thing, I tested the oil pressure alarm. With the oil pressure switch disconnected,
if you start the car and let the engine on idle, there is no alarm. The alarm will appear only
when the RPM will reach 1500RPM. At this point, you have the red oil pressure alarm. So, if you
run the car under 1500RPM, you will never get the oil pressure alarm. See the video:


http://s750.photobucket.com/user/daviddion1/media/100_0979_zps05614b8b.mp4.html?sort=3&o=0

I still don't undertstand why I got this low oïl pressure alarm when driving few weeks ago...

[Ornithology]

Sounds interesting...there was the low oil pressure light on my car before my engine BLEW....

[diond]

Sounds interesting...there was the low oil pressure light on my car before my engine BLEW....

Well, That's why I parked the car in my garage et did checks without running with the car. I want to avoid that my engine blew. But now, pressure is good and I found very small metal shaving in my oïl when I flushed the oïl after this event. See picture below. It is very small but according to me, it should not be there. What you guys think about that?

http://i750.photobucket.com/albums/xx147/daviddion1/Oilfilterwithmetals_zpse30f41aa.jpg