Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2001 08:57:21 -0700
Reply-To: Brian Cochran <rangerbrian@hotmail.com>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Brian Cochran <rangerbrian@hotmail.com>
Subject: Re: Vanagon oil light question for you - dissection of the light
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed
I will try to answer this straight off and directly, with a following of
etc-type stuff.
Alan, I found the short (in mar.'00 and Jan'01) about 12 inches from the
attachment to the .3 bar sender. The wire ran toward the front of the van,
up around the #3 cylinder, and back to the attachment in the wiring
interface. The wire, I believe, is supposed to runaround the #4 cyl. I
didn't realized this until after I replaced it the first time. On both
occasions, the wire was grounding out on the sheet metal that covered the
push rod tubes, under the head. You see, the sheet metal edges wore its way
through the insulation. What took me a while to figure out was that my
light wouldn't come on/ground-out until the engine became hot enough to
"melt" the grease coating the exposed wire, and thus making the connection.
The tell-tale is that the light flickers and/or doesn't necessarily "only"
light up under the same conditions.
That said, I must re-hash the tale of recent. In dec. this blasted light
decided to annoy me again. I figured, that having replaced the wiring to
the oil pressure sender six months back, this time around, it must be real
oil pressure woes. Right? Who knows, since it's now mid april, and after
spending close to two grand, I'm still in the dark about the whole damn
mess.
But I have a theory... My solution the second time around was to buy a VDO
oil pressure gauge. Of course, while installing it, I found the
grounding-out wire. I should have just mailed the gauge set-up back to the
depot, but instead I wanted to "improve" the vanagon. Well, the gauge tells
me I have real oil pressure light problems! Never before with the stock
light sender did the light give me a solid, sickening red light as I rolled
to a stop. Now it did have a gauge, with the light, telling me i'm in the
0-5 ?? psi zone. Of course rings, head, rods, bearings, weeks of work
later.... I find that the VDO sender lights the warning light at 7psi
compared to the 4 psi of the VW sender. Now, I'm really rambling here, but
what I think you need to know is the VDO gauge set-up is highly suspect by
me.
Check out your wiring stuff thoroughly first. It's worth it. If you are
having random flickerings, then you can bet on a grounding out somewhere!
No, then replace the VW oil pre switch first!. Only then, after that fails
and you are receiving a solid, sickening red light at idle, then go for the
gauge set up, which spells out, basically, that you are in for some major
engine repair/replacement. Then go talk to boston bob.
One final note: if you put in the VDO gauge, do not.....DO NOT use their
"adapter"/rubber hose 12" extension. First off, it's a $ rip-off. Second,
I think is a possible reason why I'm still having an INDICATION of low oil
pressure on a VW rebuid with 70k with one month old rod bearings,heads, oil
pump,etc. Of course, I'll really know if my engine throws a rod!
Good Luck,
Brian Cochran
Seattle, WA
84 westy, 2.1L (that hates me), AT, otherwise nice
Alan Wrote:
>Hi Brian:
>I read with interest your oil pressure light woes on
>the Vanagon list, and I wonder if you can tell me
>where you found the wire short that resulted in the
>flickering oil pressure light? I will post my whole
>story below, if it helps. My light come on faintly,
>and replacing (or even disconnecting) the sender makes
>no difference.
>Thanks in advance!
>Alan Flint
>'87 Syncro Westfalia
>--------------
>My '87 Syncro Westfalia recently began to have its oil
>warning light come
>on, at idle or while cruising. I am reluctant to
>drive at all until I
>sort it out.
>This I presume is the 0.3 bar warning coming at idle
>(<2000 RPM). The
>glow seems to be voltage dependent: it brightens with
>higher RPM, and it
>goes out if one or two electrical items (fan,
>defroster are turned on). I
>have not had the 0.9 bar warning (buzzer >2000 RPM) at
>all.
>What have I done so far?
>Changed the oil, 15-50 Mobil 1, VM Mann Filter, as
>always.
>Replaced the 0.3 bar sender, and checked local wiring.
>
>Interestingly, the sender is in full continuity with
>ground when the
>engine is off, and not at all in contuity with ground
>when engine is
>running. That is, 0 resistance with engine off,
>infinite resistance with
>engine on.
>Also interestingly, the dashboard light behaves
>exactly the same
>(gradually glows on) when the engine is started and
>run and the sender
>wire is DISCONECTED. So I am a little confused.
>I have grounded the wire to the dash to see that it is
>supposed to
>flash strongly under that condition. I have not seem
>that flashing at all
>with the sender connected, only the dull glow.
>
>The engine sounds fine, and I have no other suspicion
>of a problem.
>I looked for an oil pressure tester at NAPA and Sears,
>but found only
>those starting at much higher pressure (25-50 psi)
>than would be useful
>here.
>Please help if you can, even by telling me what your
>light did once and
>what was behind it. I do not want to replace anything
>else if I am on
>the wrong track. These electrical bugs easily
>confound me.
>
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