joe the god

I did a road trip from Chicago to Orlando and came back on 7/21/14 on the way back my car warned me about low oil, so I put more oil in it and checked my dip-stick until it was good to go. Now on 8/02 I had got this warning light. on 8/04 I checked my oil and topped off. I was planning on getting an oil change this week but I want to see if this is a bigger issue than I thought.
I read a few forums, and someone did say after an oil change, their car turned out to be fine. Someone else said that their warning light came on after 2k rpms. I noticed that if i drive normal the light would come up within 5 minutes of driving. But on my way home from work I decided to go slow, and shift under 2k rpms, and keep it under there. With me driving like that, I noticed the light didn't come back on until 15 minutes of driving on the expressway.
Does anyone know what my problem might be, I am extremely low on funds, because of this trip and bills, so I cannot afford for Audi to inspect the car and charge me an arm, leg, and my 1st born. I have a 2006 Audi A6 4.2 S-Line with 165k miles on it.

uberwgn

Joe, you should not be operating the car with low oil pressure.

It could be the switch itself is the problem.

The way to determine is have someone put a gage on it and measure the pressure.

Have you been using an approved oil at the recommended interval?

joe the god

The times I had to put oil I went to AZ and asked which was the correct oil, which is I believe SAE 5W-30 or 40. I usually go with Mobile 1 oil, and to top up, I usually keep an eye on the dip stick and fill up according to the dip stick.

uberwgn

The oil needs to meet VAG spec 502.00. I feel Mobil 1 0W40 is the most common and easiest to obtain in the USA. Many Audi dealers are using this.

ingelstrada

Oil pressure light is not good, you should have it taken immediately to avoid engine damage.

You do not say how long it has been for the current oil. If it's thick like molasses it might be that the pump is having a hard time, or the oil inlet is plugged if long oil change intervals are the norm and the oil used has not been 502.00 compliant.

Wake96c4

I had the same thing happen on my 05, turned out to be the oil pressure sensor. It's a $15 part that you can change yourself on the back of the oil filter housing on top of the engine.

When the red light first came on it scared me because I was at highway speed and could not stop due to construction with the road shoulders taken away. I slowed down a bit but wasn't going to stop in a 65mph travel lane in a construction zone. By the time I got out of the construction zone the light went out. The next time I started the car the light came on immediately, I decided to let it idle to see if I could hear any engine noise start to appear. The valvetrain should start making noise first and would have been my indication to shut the car down before damaging the engine, it ran around 30 minutes and no noise. I went to shut the car down and noticed the light again had gone out at some point during my idle.

I took an educated guess and changed the pressure sensor as a first step since in my case the light coming on when the engine was cold and the oil thicker, and going off when the engine was hot and the oil thinner made no sense to me. If it was a worn engine you'd see the opposite, only good oil pressure when cold.

No problems 8-9K miles later and no reappearance of the oil pressure light.

How many miles have you driven the car with the oil pressure light on? If it was several mile, several dozen mile, 100 miles etc and you're not hearing engine noises then I'd be more suspect of the pressure sensor or wiring over a real oil pressure problem.

If you haven't put more than a couple miles on the car I definitely wouldn't drive the car as a means to see if the problem is real. I my case I would have pulled over but the danger factor forced me to find out my problem wasn't real.

joe the god

That's when mine came up on my way home from work, and I let it idle and for 25 minutes that night. The light stays on as long as the car on. Now the light came on almost a week ago, since then I used the car 3 days for work. I work about 15 miles from home. I do not want to use the car, but right now my job which normally has 5 people in it just lost 3 people this week so I'm working crazy hours and I'm working everyday. I try to get rides when I can for work, but so far the car has not been an issue.

AutohausAZ-Mike

I would avoid driving the car till the problem is fixed or you might create a bigger problem down the road.

I would check the oil pressure sensor and the oil pump. The oil pump is not a common part to go out, but if it fails, it could cause serious damage to your car. The oil pump might not be maintaining proper pressure after a certain RPM or distance and that could cause low oil pressure light to come on.

joe the god

Tomorrow I'm going to take it to get the oil pressure checked out. I was forced to use it today for work. On my way to work I got the light to come up within 5 minutes which is the city part of my drive. On my way back from work it didn't come up till I got off the highway. Which was about 20 minutes of going 55mph. I'm hoping it is just a sensor.

farrock02

Same thing just happen to me yesterday. looked through my car service history and Audi replaced the oil pressure switch a few days after i got the car in 2010(A6 4.2 2005).

Went to the Audi parts dept this morning and picked up the sensor for $31. As soon as I removed the connector there was a lot of oil coming through it, which made me very happy. Mainly because it wasnt a more serious issue. the light is gone now.

At the end of the day I dont think these sensors were made to last. I got my 2005 in 2010. Now its almost another 5 years and the sensor has gone bad again