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I made a trip from Colorado Springs CO to Austin TX and back in early January, and I experienced a similar issue as JBDinTX described concerning the oil-level sensor.
In my case, my wife and I had just started the return to Colorado on a Sunday morning. About one hundred miles in to the return trip, the SQ5 decided to tell me that I was a quart low on oil, but that I could still drive it and needed to take the car to an Audi dealer soonest.
I continued to drive it and at my fuel stop in Brownwood TX, I of course shut her down for fuel and at restart it now told me I needed to add oil. Just frikkin' wonderful, I thought ... it is a Sunday (and regardless, the closest Audi dealers are in Austin and OKC), so I better pull out the manual and see what it says -- which basically is to use the best synthetic oil possible (in this case the highest grade Pennzoil 5W-30) and to only use half of the quart bottle).
Well, I thought, it has been 4,000 miles since my 5K service and I guess it may have used a quart...
So I add it, start her up again, and now get no warning bells ... so all is good.
NOPE, 30 minutes in to the drive, DING-DING ... you need to add a quart of oil. Well son of a gun ... at this point, JBDin TX post on bad oil level sensors comes in to mind and I realize I may have overfilled the oil and may not have a problem with a low oil level at all. But what I may now have is a problem with too much oil!! Oh well. only 650 miles to go...what damage can i do...
Arrived in Childress TX for the night. Went to fill up the car. Sure enough, the MMI says the oil is now overfilled and could I "please reduce the oil level"
The next morning (Monday), I call my Audi service department and am told to take it to any oil change place to have them drain some oil. OK, so the next place with any kind of infrastructure is Amarillo. I call Jiffy Lube in Amarillo and get told "We don't do Audis". Then call Meineke and they say that they can't siphon off oil, only drain it ... and they don't carry the correct oil but there is a car parts store right next door.
So, I figure that with a 7 qt capacity and with a potential overfill of over a quart, it is best just to put the car in comfort mode and try to keep RPM below 3,000 (as I don't want to froth the oil) and wait til I get home to have Audi check it.
As expected, I get the quart low warning after approx 30 min into the drive and ONLY 7 hours to go! Nice, I get to look at a check engine amber light for the rest of the drive.
ALL BECAUSE AUDI DOESN'T THINK A DIPSTICK IS NEEDED!
Took the car in Tuesday morning, they took me in right away. Found out I was about "half a cup" overfilled, according to the service tech. As for diagnostics, no problem with the sensors was found.
He said the MMI oil sensors are extremely sensitive and always giving false readings. He highly advised getting a dipstick ... which i did. Picked one up from EUROPARTS in NJ for approx $35 (shipping included).
Another trip to Austin in two weeks ... we will see how the oil sensor behaves this time.
Would love to buy a dipstick for my '15 TDI but I havent found one that indicates that it works for the TDI. Fortunately, my sensor hasnt lost its mind yet.
I had the 'need oil' message come on in the middle of a trip, pulled over and shut the engine down for a few minutes, then pulled the dipstick and said 'liar' and finished the trip. Electronics are nice until they aren't, and nothing beats old-school.
I call Jiffy Lube in Amarillo and get told "We don't do Audis".
You should be counting your blessings they told you that. With so many horror stories of high end cars getting butchered at quickie lube places, you really need to keep a 100ft distance from them, even if it's for something seemingly benign as draining some oil.
And yes, +1000 on getting a physical dipstick. Glad you got it all taken care of.
Would love to buy a dipstick for my '15 TDI but I havent found one that indicates that it works for the TDI. Fortunately, my sensor hasn't lost its mind yet.
and this parts diagram shows why you can't get a dipstick for the 3.0 TDI ... part #20. that's a rather serpentine path for a dipstick to follow.
Doesn't look too bad. Most dipsticks are pretty flexible. If they bothered to install a dipstick tube in the first place, then presumably it was so that a dipstick could be inserted in it. Then again, the crazy Germans may have only installed the tube so that you could do oil extraction. Who knows.
02-04-2016, 09:12 AM
If you haven't bought an oil dipstick yet...
and said 'liar' and finished the trip. Electronics are nice until they aren't, and nothing beats old-school.
