Club 80-90 Forums

Hi folks,

For about a month or two, the oil light in my 1990 Caravelle has been making an appearance and rearing its ugly red head.

It only starts to come on after I've been driving for about 20 mins, and at that point it only flickers. It's after about half an hour or so that the light stays on solid red. This is obviously only when I come to a stop.

I've checked the oil level and no problem there. The van seems to drives fine, it doesn't over-heat, the temp needle never goes above half way, so I'm kinda baffled as to why that pesky lil light is coming on.

I should just point out that I have a Seat engine fitted in the back if that helps.

Can anybody shed a bit of light on this problem, as I'm worried that if there IS something wrong, and I drive the van over a long distance, something serious is gonna go wrong.

Any help or advice would be gratefully received

Get electrics checked. That's what was wrong with mine

Check you are using the right grade oil.

I've had a similar problem ~ intermittent flickering with no obvious cause .. I had the sensor/switch changed. The problem has since disappeared. Worth a try.

jaymo wrote:Hi folks,

For about a month or two, the oil light in my 1990 Caravelle has been making an appearance and rearing its ugly red head.
It only starts to come on after I've been driving for about 20 mins, and at that point it only flickers. It's after about half an hour or so that the light stays on solid red. This is obviously only when I come to a stop.
Any help or advice would be gratefully received

I had the same problem on my watercooled 2.1GJ so I:
changed the oil and filter - nope!
Changed the sensor - nope!
changed the pump - nope!
Fitted a Kenlow oil cooler- yup!
I recon that indirect sensor circuit is ultra sensitive and wonder what results you would get if you wired an old fashioned mechanical pressure switch in its place.
Any views?
Cheers
Smiffy

jaymo wrote: It only starts to come on after I've been driving for about 20 mins, and at that point it only flickers. It's after about half an hour or so that the light stays on solid red. This is obviously only when I come to a stop.

So after 20 mins your engine has warmed up and so the oil is thinner (normal).

Sadly this is when worn shell bearings start to allow the thinner oil to squirt out from between them and the shaft. Especially when you are stopped with the engine running at tick over (that is what yo meant isn't it ?)

First thing to do is change the oil, the filter and the oil pressure sender.

If you still have the problem, get the oil pressure checked by a mechanic with an oil pressure gauge and be prepared to start looking for another motor or getting your existing one fitted with new shell bearings and an oil pump. (not too big a job if your Seat motor is the one based on the Golf / Scirocco engine, (is it that one ?)

Jaymo,

We had similarish probs with oil light going on - was the buzzer of doom scenario, which I'm sure you've read about here!? - on the Seat diesel engine fitted in our van.

If you do as suggested by other guys, oil check, filters change etc, but also worth cleaning your earth connections too that are on the cluster under the dash (connected to the inner metal panel) At least you'll have a better idea too that your electrics are also working as they should be?

In the end, we fitted a second hand VDO oil pressure gauge (0 - 5 bar) and oil sender taken from a VW coupe from ebay. This way at least we get a truer reading of what's going on back there! Worth it for peace of mind!

All best with it though

4gearwonder wrote:Jaymo,
In the end, we fitted a second hand VDO oil pressure gauge (0 - 5 bar) and oil sender taken from a VW coupe from ebay. This way at least we get a truer reading of what's going on back there! Worth it for peace of mind!
All best with it though

(Worth it for peace of mind!) Or not in my case as I get paranoid when it drops on tickover, slogging up a long hill or when particularly hot!
Cheers
Smiffy

Citizen Smith wrote:

4gearwonder wrote:Jaymo,
In the end, we fitted a second hand VDO oil pressure gauge (0 - 5 bar) and oil sender taken from a VW coupe from ebay. This way at least we get a truer reading of what's going on back there! Worth it for peace of mind!
All best with it though

(Worth it for peace of mind!) Or not in my case as I get paranoid when it drops on tickover, slogging up a long hill or when particularly hot!
Cheers
Smiffy

Yep, only fit an oil pressure gauge to your dash if you KNOW you always have good oil pressure

Then you can look at it and smile with pride !

If you suspect you do not have good oil pressure don't fit one, it will just make every journey into a paranoid "how long is this engine going to last" scenario !!


By the way, please don't take my words here seriously !! - well maybe !!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In view of Jaymo's "only happens after 20 mins" situation I think it less likely to be a simple electrical malady, but worth checking those connections anyway.

.

IF its a TD engine it sounds like the oil is getting too hot/thin which will drop presure. Oil cooler should fix. If it has the coolent heat exchanger on the oil filter houseing (usual VW mothod of oil cooling, works but could be better) its possable the thermostat in the cooling system isn't opening right as that can rase oil temps alot too even if the cooling fan keeps the water temp alright - does the fan come on much? Investigate temps. If its not triggering the buzzer when running the pump is probubly doing alright, its just too hot thus thin at idle. Thats probubly under 0.5bar though which isn't enough.

Personly I think VW DOP buzzer of doom system is quite clever really. Ocasionly dirt or poor contacts set it off but its main function is to warn of dangerously low oil presure. Its got 2 sensors so if one fails claiming its ok when its not the other should still pick it up. If it goes off check your oil presure with a guage! Do it NOW! It might just save you having to fit a new engine! Might even save you from crashing your van when the engine seases solid on the motorway. If it goes off there is a problem so don't bodge it or ignore it, fix it! Checking it with a decent presure guage will mean you know what the fault is and won't have to waist money on replaceing everything to find whats wrong.

If your lucky its just a faulty wire or sender on the monitering system so its cheep. By all means fit an aftermarket oil presure guage to watch it on the move, can give peice of mind but if you know its low, sorting it out will mean it won't bite you on the a*** when you actully want to use it (its gonna happen when your pushing it, eather with alot of luggage or when your in a rush). Treat your vehicles mecanicals with respect and it'll look after you.

I recon that indirect sensor circuit is ultra sensitive and wonder what results you would get if you wired an old fashioned mechanical pressure switch in its place.
Any views?

If you mean a mecanical capilury guage it'll have to be one with a rather long pipe! The mech guages can be pritty good acuracy, but the electric ones can also be as good, probuly comes down to the quality of the instrement rather than operation. The electric one is certainly more convienent for rear engine though can suffer from dirty contacts. The mech gives a nice pipe to your dash which is hard to route and can burst (had it happen on another vehicle - whys my dashbord leaking engine oil everywhere???). Worth noteing that both are designed as monitering instrements and do their task well enough (if they are good quality wired right) but are not super accurate calabrated test instrements like you'd probubly have in a workshop, should be within 10% though (I'm sure it'll say on the instructions if they are from a famous brand). They won't cost what a super accurate calabrated and certified instrement will of course!

What can I say guys, all very helpful.

The engine is non turbo and I'm not sure which vehicle it came from. The light only comes on at idle tick over.

I've noticed that if I put my foot on the clutch while parked on tick over, the light will go out, then come back on as soon as I take my foot back off. Is there an obvious reason for this?

I'll get the oil, filter and sender changed first of all and hopefully all that will solve the problem. Then I guess its an oil pressure check etc.....







Thanks

jaymo wrote:I've noticed that if I put my foot on the clutch while parked on tick over, the light will go out, then come back on as soon as I take my foot back off. Is there an obvious reason for this?

Exactly same as my van - only it will stall soon after the light comes on (no buzzer though), so I dip clutch, tap accelator, light stops threatening me and I don't stall. Mine only does it when cold...

Sarah

jaymo wrote:What can I say guys, all very helpful.

The engine is non turbo and I'm not sure which vehicle it came from. The light only comes on at idle tick over.
Thanks

Might sound stupid but if your tickover is reduculously slow the oil light will come on even on a half decent engine. While you are checking actual oil pressure make sure you are doing it at the rercomended tickover RPM. I wouldnt want to encourage bodgery but it might be an idea to speed it up a bit if you can't get the check done straight away.
Cheers
Smiffy