Blinking oil light

[dinovan-89]

Hi

Hope someone can help - I've searched through everything I can find on previous posts, but nothing seems quite the same as the problem I have.

My 89 T25 1.6 Turbo Diesel has just started an intermittent flashing oil light. This was on the motorway after a few hours driving in hot weather. It came on, I stopped and checked the oil. Then in went out, but came back on after a few minutes and was on and off for the rest of the journey a few minutes at a time.

It's kept very well serviced and the oil level was fine. This is not the 'dimly glowing' or 'flickering' light I've seen in other posts - and thankfully no 'buzzer of doom'! However, I have also got the intermittent flashing temperature/water level light issue that seems pretty common (and I have not dealt with) - it occassionally comes on for a while then goes off again of its own accord and Ive stopped worrying about it. Could this all just be an aged dash circuit/wiring problem?

Embarassingly, I admit I don't even know what the oil light is supposed to indicate. I assumed low oil level, but can it also mean the oil pressure is too high or low - and what causes these issues?

Any help or advice would be much appreciated.

Cheers

Dino

[skint-van-man]

Check all the wiring for the oil pressure sender, mine was flashing intermitedly and it turned out the wire had melted on the exhaust and was earthing through it. also mayb change the oil pressure switch? not expensive to do.

Check behind the dash, my printed circuit was knackered so i hard wired mine, this did actually give me an intermitant water temp / level light through a loose connection i had missed.

id say thats a simple cheap place to start problem solving....

[ewenmaclean]

Hello,

the wiki has a good page explaining what both your oil pressure sensors do:

https://club8090.co.uk/wiki/Al ... and_causes" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I really wouldn't start at diagnosing electrics if you're getting this sort of problem, although that is a likely cause of the oil light coming on as mentioned already.

I would verify with a wet oil pressure gauge at a garage that you have decent oil pressure, and that you are using the right type of oil - then if that's ok, go on to check the sensor's not leaking/earthing etc.. If you do actually have low oil pressure - so low that you're getting less than 0.3 bar at the head, and you're going along the motorway then you're really not doing your engine any favours. I had a blocked pick up pipe strainer recently for example - easy job on yours as it's just an oil drain + sump off. Once you verify the pressure is actually good, then you can start trawling through the several hundred posts on here about oil lights and electrical faults at the pcb!

Good luck sorting it out!

Ewen

[dinovan-89]

thank you very much Ewen and Skint Van Man. Really Helpful.

Dino