2fast2c

I did an oil change and this is what I got. Really heavy gel like oil filter. Mechanic said that he never seen filter this bad but this is less than 6 months old and 5000 miles.

What could cause this???

jandreas

What type of motor oil did you use? Does it meet the VW/Audi standard that is called for by the 2007 engine? If so, have you tried contacting Audi? They cover oil sludge issues for A4 owners. Upto 100% if you can prove that you've been following the service intervals.

2fast2c

I've used synthetic oil that I've got from audi dealer.

halik

Wow I am stumped, maybe bad rings and a lot of blowby?

snapdragon

Looks like it was cheap oil and never changed. We have 20,000 mile intervals on the same cars in Europe with 507.00 oil and no hint of this.

2fast2c

come to think of it. I went upto nyc during christmas and on the way, I've got low engine oil light so I've added some oil that I got from gas station which was synthetic but I was hesistant but I thought it would be better to add little bit of oil instead of keep going long road trip.

Maybe that oil was crap.....

I did an oil change, it should be ok now? or would it have residual effect? what's the remedy for this?

bmwm750

You've got something going on with that motor. How long have you had the car, and how many oil changes have you done to it? Was this the first time that you found this?

That is sludge, which shouldn't happen on a modern motor in good health with long long synthetic oils, so something definitely isn't right.

Could be a thermostat that isn't closing so you're always running below operating temperature?

Doesn't look like you have any oil/ coolant intermix, so that's good.

I'd re-fill it with a 505/507 oil and run it maybe 1000 miles and see what it looks like next time around, while looking out for other problems (I'd be a bit suspicious of the thermostat and what your operating temps are).

krazzz

Whatever you do, don't drive the car until you figure this out. You will cause irreversible problems and a very high wear rate if this is what your oil looks like. I would pull your pan immediately and see if that matches what the filter looks like. How is your antifreeze level? I have seen several cars that had blown head gaskets that had a thick goo like this in the oil however it was much lighter in color. Almost looked like chocolate milk. I've seen oil that hadn't been changed in 30K miles and it looked much better than this. You have problems and need to get to the bottom of this. The best option (and unfortunately the slowest) is to have an oil analysis done. It will tell you exactly what is in your oil. I have used them many times.


http://www.blackstone-labs.com/free-test-kits.php

MP4.2+6.0

Meanwhile, besides getting to the bottom of the underlying issue, I would get some engine flush and run it through per the instructions, resulting in a second drain and replace of the oil and filter. It can be harsh on seals if you use it aggressively, but you have little choice here.

The one other idea not mentioned here would be to look at your PCV system--that's the giant plastic valve (Audi has a real penchant for "mine's bigger" w their PCV valves for some reason) on the top of the motor in the intake manifold area. There is also what is referred to as the "suck valve" or a Y shaped check valve kind of thing common to Audis. On my C5 A6 4.2 it was back on the firewall. On my W12 it is right at the drivers side rubber air intake boot by the throttle. If those clog up (or freeze...read on), they can create havoc with the whole blow by oil vapor system. As I recall, they have been known to have issues in extreme cold if the valve freezes up (I think there is a TSB for some Audi motors on this somewhere).

Finally, if this traces back to the oil you bought for topping up, being blunt I would suspect you may honestly have been defrauded with some kind of false packaging or someone who refilled a bottle with crap. No synthetic or most any oil should do something remotely like this in any drive cycle absent many thousands (or tens of thousands) of miles of abuse. That seems all very far fetched though. Maybe more likely at the margin, was the oil actually low when you checked it and added more in? If not, another needle in a haystack is it actually got overfilled and then churned w/ the crank, and then even more oil soup if the blowby/PCV system was frozen and on the fritz at the time.

halik

You have multiple issues if your oil is going down. Worn rings = burning oil = acidic blow by that gels the oil.