RE: Oil pressure questions

["Buchholz, Steven" <Steven.Buchholz@kla-tencor.com>]

> BTW - Why didn't Audi put an oil pressure gauge in the 4K in 
> the first place?!!? Seems the diff 
> lock console could have been modified a bit to allow one.....

... I've never done much of a detailed survey, but IME not a lot of
manufacturers put oil pressure gauges in their cars ... sometimes for good
reason.  A friend of mine ended up having to put a new engine in his Chevy
minivan when he ran it for a while without sufficient oil.  I guess the
engine has an oil pressure gauge and he never checked it ... 

Audi has been using a fairly sophisticated oil pressure warning system for
over 10 years now ... rather than just having an idiot light that comes on
when the oil pressure is below 6PSI independent of engine RPM, it requires
that the oil be at something like 2bar as long as the engine speed is above
2000RPM (I've probably got one or both of the numbers wrong, but you get the
idea).  With that sort of system one could argue that it really isn't
mandatory that a pressure gauge be present.  On the positive side from the
dealer's standpoint not having a gauge certainly reduces the "the gauge is
pegged, is that a problem?" questions ...

Steve Buchholz
San Jose, CA (USA)