Jas Singh

I got my 2nd oil change on my 2019 A6 3 months ago and everything seemed fine. However, just 4 days ago my sensor alerted me that my oil levels were too high. I took it into the Dealership after a few days thinking it must be a faulty sensor because of the time from my last oil change. I got told that because I haven't been driving my car enough, there was condensation suspected in the engine oil affecting the oil level measurements. The dip stick showed the levels were past the maximum too.

I have reached out to some people and they have never heard of this happening before. I wouldn't be outraged with this if my previous experiences in the past 1.5 years weren't so horrible. One of them was my last oil change also having far too much oil in the car.

Can anyone help me understand if this is a possible issue or am I dealing with inadequate mechanics at the Dealership that are constantly causing me to go back for recurring issues?

AUDIQSS

If you are doing mostly short trips where the engine doesn't get up to full operating temperature, the oil can be contaminated with condensation and/or unburned gasoline. This can be manifested in "rising" oil levels. Try going out for a longer drive on the freeway of over a half-hour at speed to burn off the condensation/gasoline and see if the "oil-level" goes down. Frequently what happens is the reverse. People check their oil level before a long trip and every thing looks great and then when they get to their destination they recheck the oil level and it now shows 1/4 to 1/2 quart low. It is because the "contaminates" have been burned off.

Jas Singh

Thanks a lot! Because of the many issues Ive encountered during my short time, I have a high level of mistrust with the Dealership. Hearing this really helps. I just never heard of this issue before so I was really curious.

angrypengu

You really need to be careful here and avoid short trips. The EA839 engine has a ton of oil sensors and while condensation (water) and fuel (caused by fuel dilution) can be burned off on longer drives the NOACK (volatility) of the oil increases substantially as does a drop in flashpoint. This will cause an accelerated rate of carbon buildup on the intake valves.

Water/condensation getting burned off is no big deal but engine oil is 'ruined' after significant amounts of fuel dilution occurs even after the fuel is burned off. All this to state, outside of the initial warmup, make sure you never idle a cold engine - get it up to temp first.

It's one reason why I take the very long way to the grocery store in the winter because these EA839 engines take a bit to warm up in the very cold winters here in Canada.

Also make sure you turn off auto start stop. It wrecks havoc (fuel dilution) on cold engines (and specifically in the winter time) and Audi has a TSB that addresses this.

rockl

I had a similar occurrence back in March after my first 2019 A6 oil change. The warning light came on while driving home when I was around 8-10 miles from the dealership. The dealer blamed it on human error and corrected it by removing 1/2 quart... As I was leaving the second time I noticed the oil gage was down one bar, so they added back 1/2 pint and no other problems since then.

No idea how a certified tech can screw up an oil change, but I've had similar issues with my Q8 at the same dealership as well...

pschilleru

I too had that error message come up after a dealer oil change - mine came on before leaving the dealer parking lot. They took it back in a drained a bit off. So it seems to be a trend. Not sure how sensitive the electronic dip stick is?

Acuransx

Same thing on my C7 3.0T -- indy did oil change and overfilled. I bought a dipstick for my car so not relying solely on the MMI. I would hope that the condensation/fuel dilution is not of such great magnitude that it tripped an overfill warning absent the sump being a bit overfull at time of oil change. A half a quart of condensate/fuel in the oil would really concern me, especially if the OP's driving was not strictly limited to numerous very short trips with the car never coming up to full operating temperature or extended idling. The OP didn't weigh back in on his driving conditions. It would be interesting to hear about that. If indeed the issue for the OP is numerous very short trips, engine not run for decent period of time at full operating temperature and/or extended idle conditions then one of our compadres solutions is the way to go -- drive it more and harder! That's where the enjoyment factor comes in.

OP -- switch dealers, that much is clear. My /15 A6 3.0T has been less than flawless but dealer experience (servicing, not selling as selling dealer was worse than awful in the service dept) has been very good. These Audis are fairly complex with so much stuff baked in, both mechanical and electronic, that they can be somewhat maintenance needy and more failure prone than the simpler cars of the 90s and 00s (think Camry, Accord, Acura TL, etc.). A good servicing dealer or a trusted German car indy w/Audi experience is a must. And if you really want to know if your dealer is handing you a bag of BS, have a Blackstone oil analysis done -- check them out. I've had it done on my A6 as well as my 04 Acura TL with 187,000 miles on the clock. The results were good on both cars and quite interesting.

Best,
Jeff

jfscheck

I suspect oil changes are done by the lowest person on the totem pole in the shop, get em’ in and get them out. Just now with the engine oil measuring sensors are we realizing how sloppy some can be...

morris39

I agree about totem pole and seems to be the case with my dealer.In my case I don't think the lowest are techs and may not have access to the computer work order. The do car wash, tire pressure checks and the like. They ignore instructions to not do standard jobs and do minor mischief and sometimes damage.

jfscheck

That’s what always bothers me, the minor mischief (which can lead to small dents & scratches) that are not discovered immediately... 😳