BinsuJiro

My son just changed the oil on his 2008 A6 3.2L Quattro, and I assisted him. The oil that we removed was dark but not unlike oil I have seen from many an engine. We replaced the oil filter and gaskets for same and filled the car to the max level with Castrol 10-40 Full Synthetic Oil after double checking the Audi and Castrol oil specs. We also added a can of LiqiMolly lubricant, the same type that Audi uses.

It has been almost a week since the service and suddenly the HVAC system stopped working and the Min Oil Light came on. STOP before you scold me for not providing a VCDS diagnostic result, because we tried but the old Windoze Laptop we use to run diagnostics would not cooperate. We got half way through a test run and it froze. I will try to see if the file was saved but at this time I cannot get the thing up and running.

So, back to the issue, the car was not burning oil, not using excessive amounts of oil, the level is as perfect as can be, the dipstick shows relatively clean oil given the recent oil change, so I'm puzzled.

Adding more frustration, this was not even the issue we started to work on. As I said above we were trying to diagnose the lack of response from the HVAC System which stopped working today. It was while we were in the midst of a diagnostic that the computer [windoze] froze and shortly after that the Min Oil Light came on.

I did some research and have been lead to several possible problems: 1. the oil level sensor is faulty, 2. the hood latch which for some mysterious reason is electrically linked to the Min Oil light might be faulty, 3. the engine running for a prolonged period of time with the hood unlatched might have thrown the code that triggered the Min Oil light, or the computer freeze might have caused the code that triggered the Min Oil Light. Or, the regular service reminder which has been on for about 200 miles might have triggered the Min Oil Light???

The last diagnostic attempt during which the computer froze, I did notice some red lines of text but they flashed by and I didn't get a chance to read them. The computer is recharging now, but I thought I would throw out this/these question[s] to see what turns up.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Best, BinsuJiro [Vincent]

LarryJa

I bought an '06 C6 3.2 Quattro about 6 months ago.
Since then, I have done a pretty good amount of maintenance & repairs on this vehicle.& I enjoy it enormously!
So far, however, my biggest problem has been with the old XP laptop that I picked up to run the VCDS software. I have to face the fact that I'm dealing with a 10yr old, old dated computer, that's well beyond it's expected life. It's already cost me $250 & 3wks time to get it fixed, with no prognosis for it's long term reliability. It's past it's life expectancy.
I'm seeing that I need to move to more current technology for my "essential" monitoring & diagnostic tool. There's plenty out there.
If you're going to keep this car around, you need to regularily be able scans. That's the only way that you're going to be able to get anywhere with it.
Sorry that I cannot be anymore direct help on your immediate issue.

raj99

Why in the world are you using a 10 year old laptop?? I've got a Windows tablet running Windows 10 and have a Ross tech vcds cable and everything runs just fine. You don't need to have XP only, and remember you can always virtualize when needed.

haloguy628

Go to Auto-Zone or Pep-Boys and get the car scanned. They have their own scanners that will show error codes. I am not sure if they can clear the codes but ask. It may just be that when your laptop crashed it created problems.

OTOH the oil light may be caused by faulty pressure sensor, but it may also be sludge build up or failing oil pump. I had the same problem with my old B5 Passat. The oil light started to show up in summer when it got hot. I used only synthetic Mobil-1 0W-40 oil since the car was new so I knew that sludge was not the problem. It turned out to be failing oil pump.

If you do not know the history of the car, and the previous owner's oil change habits, then it's probably sludge build up that clogged the oil pump intake screen. I would install new oil pressure sensor first. The cost is around $20. If the light persists I would then drop the oil pan and see if it's clean or has sludge build up. If it's clean the problem is worn out oil pump. If there is sludge build up then clean the pan and the screen on the oil pump intake. If it was sludge then also use some sludge removing product that you pour into crankcase to remove any sludge in the block oil passages.

BTW the hood latch micro-switch is not connected with oil pressure sensor or light in any way.

LarryJa

I needed an XP computer for the Bentley manual & the other repair manual that I got. This way, my vcds & repair manuals are all on the same device. I'm using Firefox as a browser on it too. That way, this forum is even available to me, via wifi, while I am monitoring, evaluating or repairing my car.

raj99

Understood, but you can virtualize an instance of XP on a much newer laptop and do exactly what you want but far more reliably.

hrc4u

bentley is ****..why not get official vag elsawin?..they are all over the net... =P (just tellin')
(been running elsawin & etka since like hmm..-99)
cheers!/h

BinsuJiro

HALOGUY, Thanks for the response. I bit the bullet Saturday and traded up from my HEX-CAN USB Ross-Tech doggle to their new HEX-NET. Now I can bypass the Windoze machine and use my iPad which I bought a year ago in anticipation of HEX-NET. I have strong WIFI around my house and I can always use my iPhone as an access to the internet for full VCDS Cloud services.

I like the methodology of the procedure in your post and will recommend that to my son. FYI, though, apparently after an oil change or a period of low oil level [not long] the OIL LEVEL SENSOR needs to be reset, but if the HOOD LATCH SWITCH isn't working the DTC for low oil will not reset. That was the case with my son's A6. Initially the DTC would not reset until I slammed the hood a couple of times. The key indicator of an operable switch is whether you can see the hood unlatched symbol on the instrument cluster; if that doesn't show with the hood unlatched then the old LEVEL DTC will not reset.

Thanks again for your reply,
Vincent

BinsuJiro

LarryJa, thanks for the advice. I will be using the ROSS_TECH HEX-NET to run the diagnostics on this car in the future.

BinsuJiro

RAJ99, I see this issue took an interesting turn to a discussion of diagnostic methods. I was trying to virtualize a copy of Windoze to run in a virtual environment on my MacBook Pro, but one still has to have a viable copy of that the Windoze OS which I wouldn't spend a penny for.

The simple solution is for the automotive industry to move out of the dark ages and build their software, VCDS, Bentley Manuals to run cross-platform on on any machine that runs a UNIX sub-system like all new Windoze OS and Mac OS X. In fact, the Bentley manuals are locked PDF data files and by their very nature should be available across all platforms. The problem with Bentley is that the READER that authenticates and runs the locked PDFs only runs on Windoze.

ROSS-TECH is solving the problem with HEX-NET by making their diagnostic software resident on the HEX-NET device itself iOS compatible, and when used in a WIFI environment with internet access the HEX-NET has full functionality. And, if there is cellphone reception an iOS device such as an iPad can be connected to an iPhone setup as an access point for connection to the VCDS Cloud.

Bentley bundles access to Bahn with the purchase of a manual to solve the problem, but neither solution should be acceptable in 2016.