noob66

When I started my car this morning, I noticed a very rough idle. At first I suspected it was just 'normal' cold-start behavior (though it's not particularly cold this morning, and the idle was rougher than I've ever seen before), but when the rough idling didn't go away after a minute or two of driving, I started getting concerned. I remembered reading about some people getting rough idles after switching gas brands (and I had filled up on Shell the night prior while travelling -- I've never put Shell in this car before), but I decided to turn around home and check under the hood anyway. During the trip back, my check engine light started blinking while I was waiting for a light to turn green, then it turned itself off after about 5 seconds (while I was still stopped.) Unfortunately, my VAG-COM is still in the mail, so I couldn't pull codes. I was about half a mile from home so I decided to finish the trip anyway. When I got home, the first thing I checked was the oil level. To my surprise, when I pulled the dip stick, I saw -
- the level was probably half an inch higher than it ought to be (!)
- there were air bubbles in the oil pulled up by the dipstick (!)
- the oil was a lot thinner than it ought to be (!)
- the oil was a lot lighter in color than it ought to be -- a very light brown, almost the color of unused oil. (I use Mobil-1 0W40, BTW)

In retrospect, my car may have had some very slight stuttering at speed as well. While driving, I did not notice any other problems including loss of power, excessive smoke or odor in exhaust. I also did not notice any obvious discoloration in the other tanks under the hood.

I remember when I filled up the night before, the car seemed to have taken a lot more gas than it generally does while the tank was similarly empty. Now it could just be the over-inflated gas prices playing trinks on me, but maybe it's not...

So, given all these, I'm now suspecting I somehow got gas in my oil. Does this make sense? Could this be caused by over-filling the gas tank? What else should I be checking?

Also, how worried should I be? I assume the 'fix' is to change the oil and filter. If the problem doesn't return after that, should I still take it to see a professional?

Oettinger_A4

Blinking CEL = get towed to dealer

noob66

and it only blinked for 5 seconds, which amounts to on-off-on-off-on-off. I might as well have missed it. Is it still a tow-to-dealer if it stopped blinking?