Oil pressure warning light and buzzer

[Steve16v 0]

I know that the whole oil pressure sender issue has been addressed before but the problem that has hit my 1990 16v seems different

 

It has started happening intermittently over the last few weeks under normal driving conditions, no high revving or abrupt dropping of gears, I hear the odd beep and a flash of the oil light and then nothing for a couple of days. It had be slightly concernd but not too much as I had had sender issues before and though to myself, must be the sender acting up on me again!!

 

That is until yesterday morning. Was coming home from a weekend away, started the car, a little sluggish (but I think the battery could be due a change) reversed out of the car park and set off on my way home, as soon as I went over 2000rpm the light came on and I heard the buzzer, I took my foot off the accelerator and the light and buzzer went off once it went below 2000rpm. this continued until the car had warmed up (Water temp showing 85 degrees, oil temp showing 90 degrees) Once it was warmed up it ran fine. The same thing happened 3 times during the day starting a journey after the car had been left to cool for a couple of hours

 

Has anyone else experienced this? Could it just be that the sender is knackered again or am I looking at something different??

[Supercharged 2]

What oil are you using?

[davidwort 0]

I know that the whole oil pressure sender issue has been addressed before but the problem that has hit my 1990 16v seems different

 

It has started happening intermittently over the last few weeks under normal driving conditions, no high revving or abrupt dropping of gears, I hear the odd beep and a flash of the oil light and then nothing for a couple of days. It had be slightly concernd but not too much as I had had sender issues before and though to myself, must be the sender acting up on me again!!

 

That is until yesterday morning. Was coming home from a weekend away, started the car, a little sluggish (but I think the battery could be due a change) reversed out of the car park and set off on my way home, as soon as I went over 2000rpm the light came on and I heard the buzzer, I took my foot off the accelerator and the light and buzzer went off once it went below 2000rpm. this continued until the car had warmed up (Water temp showing 85 degrees, oil temp showing 90 degrees) Once it was warmed up it ran fine. The same thing happened 3 times during the day starting a journey after the car had been left to cool for a couple of hours

 

Has anyone else experienced this? Could it just be that the sender is knackered again or am I looking at something different??

 

senders are cheap and easy to replace, loads of VW's have them so a scrap yard would do, failing that new from GSF. Check the connectors and wiring are not damaged , they're prone to corrosion as they're so exposed to heat and salt spray where they are.

Don't risk siezing your engine though, if you can't fix the problem with the wiring or senders then get a pressure check done by a garage.

I've had the odd intermittent beep from my dash, when the car is cold, but I know everything is fine as the oil pressure gauge I have reads perfectly, it's the old wiring on mine creating a really high resistance I reckon.

 

David.

[Steve16v 0]

What oil are you using?

 

15w 40, there is 3000 mile since the last oil change and 6000 miles since the last filter change

[rmn 0]

Yeah, Steve GSF in Clondalkin do those.

do not run the risk of running the engine.

it may be a dodgy oil pump in the engine either, so you are better safe than sorry

[Steve16v 0]

Don't risk siezing your engine though, if you can't fix the problem with the wiring or senders then get a pressure check done by a garage.

 

I organised this last night, should hopefully be able to see what the pressures are tomorrow, was just wondering if anyone had seen symptoms like this before?

 

The wiring is of course also a possibility

[Steve16v 0]

Yeah, Steve GSF in Clondalkin do those.

do not run the risk of running the engine.

it may be a dodgy oil pump in the engine either, so you are better safe than sorry

 

Geo is hopefully doing a pressure test on it tonight/tomorrow, yep I am worried about the pump and am not taking any risks :(

[potatonet 0]

IMHO get an oil pressure gauge, and check the bolts on the SIDE of the engine that hold on this stupid metal cover, should be right near the camshaft, its a stupid cover that sometimes will come loose if you tune your engine up a lot, or if you just forget to tighten it like me =-/. and check your brackets and the usual, wiring is almost never the case in this situation. I say its the side thing. cheers

[Steve16v 0]

Ok lads, just an update

 

Did the pressure test last night, all seems grand on that front, pressure on startup = 80psi and when warmed up at idle it is steady at around 15psi or just above

 

I fitted the pressure tester to the low pressure sender port, started the car and the pressure went straight to 80psi (as I would have expected and had my fingers crossed for!!) let it run til the oil temp was around 60 degrees then reved it to 2500 and the buzzer and light came on (would this happen in any case seeing as the low pressure sender was not connected?) but all was well on the pressure gauge (Pressure went up as I revved it as it should, pressure dropped back down when I lifted off)

 

I then swapped out the low pressure sender with one from an 8v Mk2, as soon as the Mk2 was started up the oil light came flashing on (the buzzer is broken in that car but I assume it would be coming on too)

 

Started my car with the swapped out sender in it and all was well, no lights and no buzz (the car was warmed up at this stage oil temp 80-90degrees)

 

Drove it normally for about half a mile... no probs :)

 

Started it this morning... when I got onto the main road and as soon as I went over 2500rpm the buzzer and light came on again... parked the car up at my house for an hour or so. Started it again and drove it into college keeping the revs below 2500, when I got into the car park the car was fully warmed up, revved it to about 3500 and no probs at all..

 

This one has me confused.... has anyone got any ideas what could be up here??

 

Cheers

[davidwort 0]

Ok lads, just an update

 

Did the pressure test last night, all seems grand on that front, pressure on startup = 80psi and when warmed up at idle it is steady at around 15psi or just above

 

I fitted the pressure tester to the low pressure sender port, started the car and the pressure went straight to 80psi (as I would have expected and had my fingers crossed for!!) let it run til the oil temp was around 60 degrees then reved it to 2500 and the buzzer and light came on (would this happen in any case seeing as the low pressure sender was not connected?) but all was well on the pressure gauge (Pressure went up as I revved it as it should, pressure dropped back down when I lifted off)

 

I then swapped out the low pressure sender with one from an 8v Mk2, as soon as the Mk2 was started up the oil light came flashing on (the buzzer is broken in that car but I assume it would be coming on too)

 

Started my car with the swapped out sender in it and all was well, no lights and no buzz (the car was warmed up at this stage oil temp 80-90degrees)

 

Drove it normally for about half a mile... no probs :)

 

Started it this morning... when I got onto the main road and as soon as I went over 2500rpm the buzzer and light came on again... parked the car up at my house for an hour or so. Started it again and drove it into college keeping the revs below 2500, when I got into the car park the car was fully warmed up, revved it to about 3500 and no probs at all..

 

This one has me confused.... has anyone got any ideas what could be up here??

 

Cheers

 

Are you sure all the wiring is in good nick?, mine's shot at 15 years old and 140,000 miles, at least where it's more exposed.

[Steve16v 0]

Yeah I'm starting to have my suspicions about the wiring, but don't want to rule anything out.. has anyone else come across symptoms like this before? I am going to swap over the high pressure senders tonight to see if that might be causing the problem

[davidwort 0]

Yeah I'm starting to have my suspicions about the wiring, but don't want to rule anything out.. has anyone else come across symptoms like this before? I am going to swap over the high pressure senders tonight to see if that might be causing the problem

 

Well the buzzer comes on if the sender isn't earthing through the engine, so any fault in the sender or wiring giving a high resistance could cause the buzzer to sound - or of course the sender working fine but the oil pressure not being minimum at 2,500 revs.

As it's the 2,500 revs sender that seems to be the culprit here I'd check out the resistance in this wire, possibly replace the last 10cm or so and fit a new female connector.

 

David.

[Steve16v 0]

The wire is looking a little tatty I suppose, between what points should I check the resistance? Between the end of the wire and the clocks?

[davidwort 0]

The wire is looking a little tatty I suppose, between what points should I check the resistance? Between the end of the wire and the clocks?

 

I'd check it from the connector on the sender to about 10cm back down the wiring, you can use a pin to make contact through the insulation at that point, the engine bay is the most likely area for problems.

Other than that it's possible there is a problem with the electrics in the instrument cluster, but I'd follow all the wiring through first before trying new clocks.

[Steve16v 0]

Cheers for that, will have a look at it later :)

[Steve16v 0]

Ok went at it again last night

 

Turns out that the wrong wires were on the pressure senders and that the high pressure sender was leaking a bit through the spade connector. Swapped out the sender and connected the wires the right way round, still confused though cos the wires had been like that for the last 6 months at least, why did it only start to trigger the warnings now? Anyways its not beeping at me anymore so I am happy enough, just have to get around to fitting a pressure gauge in the dash now

[benkenobi57 0]

glad to hear that you got it sorted steve 8)

[Steve16v 0]

Fingers crossed anyways ben, cheers

[potatonet 0]

anything with oil going on after a certain RPM is always the pressure switches, the bentley tells you that it must be 1.7 bar after 2100 rpms I believe