Flashing red oil light and buzzer = low coolant?

[ScienceBoy]

This seems to happen intermittently. I've been looking for a leak but can't see one. The water is going down slowly. Oil is clean. Not sure if be a real water loss, or a temperamental float switch.

Any ideas or experience

[Mocki]

Oil light and buzzer = low oil pressure
Flashing coolant light = low coolant level and or overheating if accompanied by high temp reading

[ScienceBoy]

Thanks Mocki
Temp is fine so assuming coolant level.

So this morning I go to check level and it's flooding out of the bottle. So where's the water hiding? Air trap? If it were hot any air were hot then it'd expand.... Somewhere...

[ScienceBoy]

Sorry Mocki, didn't read your reply correctly.

So low oil pressure. What are the causes and solutions? Level looks fine on dip stick :s

[ScienceBoy]

Just seen a post from #gog
I'll check out the sensor connections. Problem is there's a bed on it at the moment as we're travelling over night. Home James!

Any other ideas?

[Mocki]

You don't want to be assuming that the BoD ( Buzzer of Doom) is false alarming, it's there for a reason, a very good reason.
Yes, they do false alarm, and if you know for sure the oil pressure and level is good, you can afford to ignore it until you can solve the problem causing it, however, ignoring it if you don't know very often will result in a engine replacement and swift emptying of your bank account....

Places to look BEFORE you start the engine are
1. The twin white plastic connector on the front ( gearbox end) left of the engine just above the thermostat housing , often is green with corrosion when pulled apart
2. The sender connection between the crank pulley and the water pump pulley is often damaged by the fan belt if it breaks, and is always corroded and dirty .
3. The earth connection on the top of the lhs head. Clean it up !

[ScienceBoy]

One thing to point out is that it is intermittent. The oil level is fine, and I've just driven about three hours on and off through London until just now coming up to the hind head tunnel.
He's going in for new exhaust this week so this will be looked at.

[pandp38]

I had a similar problem...it turned out to be a bad connection on the white multiplug in the dashpod. Took ages for me to find!

Paul

[dbz864]

oil pressure dosnt come and go,drops when engine/oil hot.If the buzzer/light random at any revs id say engine fine,esp if your driving it and it dosnt sound like a bag of sh-ite. Good luck with exhaust chances are itl be expensive,dosnt sound like your having much luck.

[ScienceBoy]

Cheers man.
No worries in exhaust, they're consumable so you'll need one sometime right? We got a SS one from speedshop ready for fitting. Good job as a mid section fell off on way home. Lol. Talk about end to failure!!

Oil pressure coming and going is what gets me. It doesn't happen (the alarm) when it's cold. It's fine for a while if you stop for 5 mins. It just feels more likely to be instrument/electrical than actual mechanical, and there's so many wires, joint, con blocks exposed to the hot engine and road environment. Hmmmm

[ScienceBoy]

Thanks Paul. I'll go and give that a wiggle too!

[Mocki]

We need you to give more precise information !
When it buzzes is important to what is happening, you need to remember we cannot see what you can see nor hear what you can hear........

There are rev ranges when it will buzz if it's genuine but still seem on and off

[ghost123uk]

Oil pressure coming and going is what gets me. It doesn't happen (the alarm) when it's cold. It's fine for a while if you stop for 5 mins.

If it only does it when it's hot (which is how I understand what you have written) then it could well be a genuine alarm and therefore cause for concern. "Real" oil pressure problems usually show up when the engine is hot as the oil is thinner when hot. The only way to be sure is take it to a garage for a proper oil pressure test. Only takes a short amount of time to do so won't (shouldn't) be expensive. Then you will know for sure what is going on and can take it from there. In the meantime, read all about it HERE and HERE. Fingers crossed for you.

[ScienceBoy]

Harry's going in on Wednesday so should be fine.

Alarm only goes off when hot.

It goes off when trundling along at 50mph at whatever revs that is, moderate to light throttle. Sometimes it stopped without altering revs. Mostly it buzzed for less than a minute then went off and back on a fee mins later. Sometimes we carried on going at same rate and it stopped and wouldn't come back on for a significant time.
Sometimes reducing the revs seemed to stop it, and sometimes it made no difference.

If it is oil I'm thinking at 120k it might need thicker oil.

But I'm not convinced its not instrument error. Perhaps heat is affecting a connection in the engine bay. Kombi Klassics say the instrument cards can/do go on these (and can't be replaced). They'll find out later!

[Ian Hulley]

Thicker oil is like burying your head in the sand, if it genuinely has low oil pressure it is a worn engine BUT have the connections checked (our white junction box was all verdigris inside and the terminal onto the sensor behind the pump was very loose, replaced those and voila no more Buzzer Of Doom) and the pressure checked while the van's in at the garage.

Ian