TimLawNYC

I purchased my 2011 A4 (Prestige) in January. Haven't driven it too much; it only has around 3,800 miles currently. Have not had it serviced or been in for the 5,000 mile oil change yet, and I live approx. 30 miles from the nearest reputable Audi dealer, where I plan to go for any service.

I have been lurking around this message board for a while, and have been reading up on the apparent oil consumption issues in these cars. The other day I checked the oil from the MMI, and it said the level was "OK" but the bar on the right was exactly half full, between the "Min" and "Max" extremes. Seeing the bar halfway down, I assumed that my car was low on oil, so I added a quart.

I then realized that I'm definitely not used to a car that has no dipstick, that I actually had no idea how low the oil was or how much I should have added, and I'm very worried that I may have overfilled the oil. When I check the oil now from the MMI, it still says it's "OK" but the bar is completely full, up to "Max".

I have since read that the car will actually tell you when the oil is truly low, and will even tell you how much to add--so now I'm REALLY worried that I overfilled it because it never told e it was low and I added a quart anyway. And I know that these engines are particularly sensitive to damage from overfilled oil.

Does anybody know if the computerized oil check will also tell you if the oil is too full? In other words, if it's not telling me there's a problem, am I okay? Is there ANY other way I can check the level myself? Any way to remove just some of the oil without pulling the whole drain plug?

I appreciate any help or information. I don't want to hurt my car!

uberwgn

A quart is likely way too much, Tim.

Welcome aboard!

Marley's Ghost

Assuming that your A4 MMI is the same as my Q5 MMI, you may have a minor problem.

The bar on the MMI indicates the level for the first liter of oil, not for the all of the oil. So (assuming that you checked the level on level ground, halfway down would be about 0.5 L low (or about a half quart. No need to add oil IMO.

I don't know if adding a full quart has any short or long term implications for your engine, but I'd be careful about adding after this.

jdong

Yeah, the manual says the interval from MIN to MAX is 1qt, and it also recommends adding a small amount (like 0.2qt or something) at a time while reading the update bar if you want to add oil before you get the "add 1qt now" warning message from the car.

However, the manual also says that the car will yell at you to remove oil if it thinks you added too much, and since you're not getting that warning, you might be alright.

iflywoe

you can get a dip stick from ecstuning.com for like $20

uberwgn

Agree with Mr.Dong...the car should give a warning if "over-filled" to the point of causing a problem..

TimLawNYC

Thanks for the replies. It sounds like it was probably half a quart low when I filled it, so I'm maybe half a quart over right now. I'm going to assume that the car would warn me if it's truly overfilled, and if I continue not getting that warning, I'm going to stop worrying about it, hope I haven't done any damage, and be way more careful about this in the future.

uberwgn

Tim, IME, it's best to add just a couple of ounces of fresh oil at a time and bring the level up gradually...you won't ever worry about over-filling this way. A little oil moves the electronic gage a lot.

Oil level is checked when the engine is hot, following a 2 min shutdown. Some say you've got to open/close the hood to have the system produce a correct reading for you. I believe the OM sez something to this effect.

Enjoy.

need_TQM

FYI - when you are adding oil, the MMI level display will update in real-time with the hood up as you pour oil in. Kind of hard to see the screen from where you can pour oil in, but at least you can pour a little, check the MMI, pour a little more if needed, etc.

I do this when I'm changing oil and adding the last quart, but when I am just topping off I've had good luck just assuming the MMI min to max is 1 quart - if it's only showing half a bar, I know it's about a half quart low...

uberwgn

Good to know. Someone else mentioned this before.

I've only had my first (dealer) oil change so far. Haven't done it myself on the A4.