I went out for a random drive yesterday evening, thought I'd give it a proper run, some full throttle sort of action.
It was fine until about 5 minutes away from home (probably did a 50-60 mile drive at this point) - Oil pressure light came on, for around 3-4 seconds, and then went out. I continued home as I was so close but under light load/throttle openings.
Checked the oil, it was fine.
Today, drove to work, no problems - at lunch, drove to VW to purchase a replacement oil pipe (as I would guess it's that...?) and floored it up the dual carriageway. Slowing down for the roundabout, came to a stop as there was a car coming, oil pressure light came on again. VW was 200 yards away so nursed it there and shut it down.
No odd noises from engine (at the moment..)
Started it again, no oil light. Revved it to about 3500 and the light came on again. Shut it off and went inside for 10 minutes to buy what I needed.
Came out, started the car up again, no light, 200 yards away again, the light came on, but by this point I was down hill on the dual carriageway, so I shut the engine off and coasted down the hill.
At the bottom there is another roundabout so I started the car again, no light. Drove under light throttle openings (with windows down to be able to check for odd noises which weren't there) and 4 miles back to the office and no warning lights..
Am I right in thinking this would be an oil pick up pipe issue? The pick up pipe should be with me tomorrow fingers crossed. But unsure of when I can get it fitted.
I've only owned the car about a month, I changed the oil and filter about 2 weeks ago. The old oil was pretty clean, the filter was minging. I would say on average the oil had been changed every 12-15k from the service history.
I've been reading online this afternoon and it's either a faulty switch (which I am not going to rule out until we can properly test the oil pressure with a gauge), the pick up pipe, or the oil pump?
But as I said, it's intermittent so I don't think it's the pump.
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Edit 21st June
After resolving the problem I put a DIY together for anyone else wondering.
Here's my guide. Perhaps it can be made a sticky or something.
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Over the last few days I've been getting intermittent low oil pressure warnings on my dash. It would come on for a few seconds and then go out again, or it would come on after high revs/load situations. I panicked and haven't driven it.
After doing some research I found it could be the oil pick up pipe (thanks to Niki at R-tech for the thread he made which alerted me to the problem).
Had to buy the pick up pipe, oil and what not on my credit card
but I was brought a Halfords professional tool kit which was great but has everything you need.
You will also need
At least 5.3 litres 5w/30 or 5w40 oil meeting VW specs. (buy a 5L tub and a 1L bottle)
Oil Filter
06F 115 251 A - Oil Pick Up Pipe (there is also a small seal but I didn't have the part number of this, the VW parts guy put it on, and my ETKA is quite old so doesn't have it
Loctite 5920 (Halfords stock this) or VW sealant (SD1 764 04A 2). The Loctite is 1/4 the price and the same stuff.
10mm socket, spanners
5mm ball headed allen key (quite long)
small flat blade screw driver
rubber mallet
razor blade
heavy duty degreaser (such as G101 or BH Surfex)
2x 500ml cans of brake cleaner (Halfords)
lots of tissue
hand sprayer or hosepipe
I have seen a few posts about this before but not very many and I personally think this issue should have more awareness than it already does. The cost of parts, including the sump sealant, new oil and filter is around £100.. the pick up and pick up seal itself are only £35 from VW.. so next time you change your oil you should consider removing the sump.
Car jacked up and all secured on axle stands with the jack on the suspension arm for extra safety. Ben (my mate lending me a hand!) looking a bit confused
Before Ben arrived I had drained all of the oil already.
Getting the sump off is not actually too difficult. Around 20 10mm bolts, with 3 larger bolts going through the bell housing into the sump. Three of the 10mm bolts were a pain in the arse due to them being angled. You either need a severely wobbly extension or you can use a 5mm ball headed allen key and a spanner, which is what we did. I would start on the 3 bolts that are awkward to get to first personally.
Then you have 2 bolts holding the turbo oil pipe on to the back of the sump. There is a metal gasket on this. As long as you don't bend it or crack it you can re-use it.
When everything is removed you scratch your head wondering why the sump is still magically staying on.. There's a tab on the passengers side which is just enough room to get a screw driver in, wiggle it about (use the shaft if you can not the head to avoid damaging the mating surfaces) and it will drop. Alternatively you can give it a few whacks with the rubber mallet.
The sealant on its own is enough to hold the weight of the sump.
It's not heavy but don't let it fall down.
And here is what you see afterwards..
You can see my pick up is well and truly clogged.
The sump itself
This is on a car with 86k and that had been previously on long-life oil services, between 12 and 15k. Not too bad but obviously bad enough. There were small grit-like particles all over the bottom of it and especially in the sections lower than the drain hole, obviously where it is not flushed out during a change.
After a thorough clean with brake cleaner, plenty of neat BH Surfex and warm water....much better!!
So we cleaned the mating surface of any remaining sealant/gasket and put in the new oil pickup. The pickup pipe itself is a single bolt with a rubber o-ring seal on the back-side of it. From memory it's a 5mm ball head again.
When you are re-fitting it do not forget to oil the seal prior to installation!
Ben has a much steadier hand than me so he did the application of the sealant. There is an official VW part for this but it's just a high temperature gasket sealant, after doing some research I found that Loctite 5920 (available from Halfords under £6) would be perfectly good. So that's what we used.
A very thin bead is required, 2-4mm, as applied in the picture. Any more than that and it could get sucked up into the oil pick up, pump, or into the turbo!
The sealant needs approx 30 minutes of "dry time" so don't put any oil in for approx half an hour.
In this time we changed the oil filter, and replaced it with a genuine VW one, complete with 5.3 litres of Mobil 1 5w/30 (what you needed to take you from dry sump and empty filter to max oil level) which left us with nothing to do other than tidy up.
Car started, given 2-3 minutes of idling followed by a few small blips. Engine off, check for any obvious leaks, re-check oil levels - and you are done :D
Sounded much better, idling happier. Gentle warm up drive followed by some blats up and down a dual carriageway revealed no problems!
=====Footnote====
If you drive your car exceptionally hard or do lots of short journeys I would personally drop to a 7500 or even 5000 mile oil and filter service schedule. Another thing to avoid COMPLETELY is engine flush - unless you are prepared to do the engine flush and then possibly remove the sump again to inspect/clean out the pick up - A good mate of mine who works in a garage has seen this before as well, and nearly always a few thousand miles after doing a service with an engine flush. It's not something he recommends but unfortunately when you work for a company you have to do what they tell you.
