thebubs

Trying to get my buddy's 1990 Audi 200 Turbo going. Here's the story...

One day he's driving around town and the oil light comes on. Checks the dipstick and there's plenty but puts some in anyway. Oil light stays on. Pressure drops completely and the car starts blowing serious smoke. He pulls over and has the car towed to his house. Sat there for a month, wasn't driven. He assumed it was the oil pump. Car sat for a month uninsured. We started it today and had a mechanic come over and test the pump, compression test etc. Dipstick had plenty of oil, oil was reaching the head, and all cylinders had great compression so it wasn't the head gasket like I thought it might be. Anyway, drained all the oil (THERE WAS ALMOST 9 LITRES IN THE ENGINE!!) Put new oil in and it ran fine, a little of smoke while the old oil cleaned out and then no smoke at all. However, after running for a few minutes the oil pressure gauge began to drop from 2 BAR eventually reaching near 0 when the oil light came on again. Topped up with a bit more 10w30 and then went for a spin. Car blows thick white smoke when being driven but almost nothing when idling. Can someone PLEASE tell me what the hell is going on. If it's not worth the time and money to fix I'm not gonna bother but I'd like to know what's going on. Thanks!

Cdn Blue Coupe

My 2 cent guess

thebubs

Good compression across all 5 cylinders. Shouldn't that rule out the headgasket being blown?

reddiamond

put a gauge on it and see if it matches gauge in car may have sludged oil pickup causing loss of pressure overfilling or blown turbo may cause smoking

Katman

Getting any 'low oil' soundss Lifter ticking? Knocking?

Go with reddiamond "s suggestion of trying a mechanical gauge if you don't hear anyting odd.

I'd wager the smoking was just from too much oil in the motor!

Mister Bally

I had an '87 5000 CSQ with turbo engine and an '81 4000 5+5 with a non-turbo inline 5.

I had the low oil pressure problem (Gauge and light) once I revved the engine high. To "reset, I had to shut off engine for a moment and restart. No problem idling, but once revved, low oil pressure.

It turned out the screen on the oil pickup tube was "Varnished" or clogged. I changed my oil per the owners manual and used CAstrol bran oil of the recommended viscoscity but had the problem. A dealer mechanic suggested that was my problem and recommended draining the oil and filling the crankcase with a gallon or so of kerosene and letting it sit for a few hours. Drain and fill with oil. I did this and it worked for about two years. The problem came back so I bit the bullet and removed the oil pan to get at the pickup tube. I simply removed the strainer screen and all was well after that.

Caveat, this happened on my '81 non-turbo engine. I neve had the problem on my '87 turbo 5000 which is a 200 in Europe. As for the world-wide 200 designation that have 20 valve engines, I don't know if the picup tube with strainer is even used in your engine. I hope this helps you.