worst day ever (so far)

W

will26

Member
So the Audi A2 had its MOT earlier today and failed. See my other post here: https://www.a2oc.net/community/index.php?threads/mot-failure.54852/

Halfords dont have the capacity to do the repairs but were willing to retest it.

i drove the car to a nearby local independent garage to try and get in booked in. no joy. Apparently several local garages are booked up (south Bristol)
so i got back in the car to try elsewhere. It wouldn't start. It was turning over and shuttering, but not firing. I got the better-half to drive around so I could jump start it but again (despite leaving it to run for several minutes) it still didn't start. The mechanic came up and said it sounded like the engine had gone!!!! 'Not much compression' he said. he though oil could solve it so we poured some in but to no avail. The car is still up there. I'll try again this evening, but it looks serious.

Im suspicious of the halfords now.
the side light was left on.
the engine did not sound great at all - sounded dry after leaving Halfords
the oil lamp was on.

So i dont know what to do now. I must admit it almost brought a tear to my eye when the mechanic said the engines gone. My better-half had a good sob.

if needing to scrap does anyone know of someone who might be interested?
 
It all sounds a bit strange to be honest.

Yes i'd be interested in it if you want to move it on, but they are all fixable fails except for this apparent engine failure. Perhaps one of their lads needs a first car, cue offer of £100 to take it off your hands or is that me being cynical.
 
will26 said:
So the Audi A2 had its MOT earlier today and failed. See my other post here: https://www.a2oc.net/community/index.php?threads/mot-failure.54852/

Halfords dont have the capacity to do the repairs but were willing to retest it.

i drove the car to a nearby local independent garage to try and get in booked in. no joy. Apparently several local garages are booked up (south Bristol)
so i got back in the car to try elsewhere. It wouldn't start. It was turning over and shuttering, but not firing. I got the better-half to drive around so I could jump start it but again (despite leaving it to run for several minutes) it still didn't start. The mechanic came up and said it sounded like the engine had gone!!!! 'Not much compression' he said. he though oil could solve it so we poured some in but to no avail. The car is still up there. I'll try again this evening, but it looks serious.

Im suspicious of the halfords now.
the side light was left on.
the engine did not sound great at all - sounded dry after leaving Halfords
the oil lamp was on.

So i dont know what to do now. I must admit it almost brought a tear to my eye when the mechanic said the engines gone. My better-half had a good sob.

if needing to scrap does anyone know of someone who might be interested?
Click to expand...
So did the oil light go out when the mechanic put some oil in?

As a next step I would check the oil level before trying to start. Has it got enough? Did Halfords perform a service before doing the MOT? It’s possible Halfords didn’t put enough in or didn’t tighten the drain plug enough. Check for any sign of leaking.
 
I don't know what the halfords did but clearly if you take your car back from any garage with your engine oil light on that's not good. When did you last time checked your oil? Did you have any issue in past with loosing oil and regulary topping it up?


The absolutely best thing you can do is get someone close with VCDS to do deep scan of your car and you know exactly what's wrong. If you can't find anyone around pop tomorrow into argos, toolstation or eurocarparts and get some cheap car scanner for 20 quid and scan the car. You might be able to read the error code which if you post it here we might be able to help identified the issue.
 
Tdi or petrol? In some respects irrelevant if the car has been driven without oil, it is probably a scrapper.
The engine type though may shed some light on how a correctly performed test can finish off an engine.
 
birtyA2 said:
So did the oil light go out when the mechanic put some oil in?

As a next step I would check the oil level before trying to start. Has it got enough? Did Halfords perform a service before doing the MOT? It’s possible Halfords didn’t put enough in or didn’t tighten the drain plug enough. Check for any sign of leaking.
Click to expand...
The oil lamp light was red
We put about 2.5ltrs in and yet the light still showed up
There's a very slow leak. Literally a drop.
No he Halford's did not do a service before the MOT.
 
Is the oil pressure switch intact / plugged in / connected?

Red oil light is pressure, not level - if I've not misread the results of a quick Google check.

I've had to replace it twice on our AUA - once on arrival as oil was leaking through the (probably original!) sensor itself, and once a few months back, although it appears that may have been a connector issue as that also turned out to need replacing as it was structurally knackered. In our case the oil had been dribbling down the front of the engine long enough that it caused comment that there appeared to be an oil leak - so I wonder if that is what was picked up in the MOT?

If oil has just been poured in willy-nilly by the more recent mechanic and it's not needing oil it could be massively overfilled which can cause other serious problems - what does the dipstick say?
 
will26 said:
So the Audi A2 had its MOT earlier today and failed. See my other post here: https://www.a2oc.net/community/index.php?threads/mot-failure.54852/

Halfords dont have the capacity to do the repairs but were willing to retest it.

i drove the car to a nearby local independent garage to try and get in booked in. no joy. Apparently several local garages are booked up (south Bristol)
so i got back in the car to try elsewhere. It wouldn't start. It was turning over and shuttering, but not firing. I got the better-half to drive around so I could jump start it but again (despite leaving it to run for several minutes) it still didn't start. The mechanic came up and said it sounded like the engine had gone!!!! 'Not much compression' he said. he though oil could solve it so we poured some in but to no avail. The car is still up there. I'll try again this evening, but it looks serious.

Im suspicious of the halfords now.
the side light was left on.
the engine did not sound great at all - sounded dry after leaving Halfords
the oil lamp was on.

So i dont know what to do now. I must admit it almost brought a tear to my eye when the mechanic said the engines gone. My better-half had a good sob.

if needing to scrap does anyone know of someone who might be interested?
Click to expand...
Did the car actually start when you jumpstarted it?
Side light on may have been enough to flatten a poor battery!
 
Hi,
Sorry to hear that your car is not working. It is a stressful situation to be in.
Is your A2 essential or do you have a second car?

If its essential I would look at the options you have to keep mobile


Hire a car for a couple of weeks to give yourself some breathing space.
Meanwhile if you trust the mechanic shop where the car is resting at the moment ask how much a fault scan would be and you will require the print out of that scan.
This is so the A2oc and yourself will have more data to assess than just best guessing.

(The replies that the A2oc have provide above are very helpful.
Personally I would get a pen and paper write a short hand version (bullet points) of each suggestion and photo copy that list keep one for yourself and the photocopy give to the chosen mechanic shop).

If your comfortable doing some DIY car work yourself I would ask how much it would cost the garage to drop the car back at your home. Then do a Shipley or similar search for car transporters and check your local yellow pages for the same service shop around and get that car home.
Do you have a driveway to work on you car or is it parked on the street? If it's on the street this is a safety concern and it's not advisable to work on a car when other cars are driving alongside.

My plan would be

1. Ask for a quote on a diagnostic scan and print out of the results. (VCDS scan if possible) .

2. Obtain some quotes from car transporters to get the car home.

3. If you have AA RAC roadside recovery to home do give them a phone to see if they are sympathetic to your situation.

Most of all, :) 👍 best of luck.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
If the Red oil light is pressure, not level, then you need to check the oil level with the dipstick providing the end is not broken. As mentioned, over filling can be as damaging as under filling. The mechanic should not have put oil in without checking the level before and after. In my eyes that's negligence.
 
I think the damage was already done before you get to the mot test because on your mot fail certificate is writen that engine is leaking oil and most importantly there is a "unhealthy" noise while idle. I think the engine might me starved from oil due leak for leghty period of time and when you picked it up from the mot very low oil level triggered the sensor. I would still scan it to see what codes pop out to know what exactly is wrong with it.
 
As above, it does sound very much like the engine has been ran without oil. For future reference, if you ever see a red oil light while driving on any car you should stop and turn the engine off as soon as it is safe to do so.
Red almost always means low oil pressure, which means you’ve got probably a few seconds before the engine starts being damaged.

When was the oil last checked? It’s possible the oil “drip” has been going on for a long time, and the oil level was getting lower and lower. Eventually it’s dropped below the pickup for the oil pump, and the car lost oil pressure.
 
Don't start it.
I would agree with Rotifer, get the vehicle home.
Shouldn't cost you that much...should be local?
Time to think.
 
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