Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2001 18:14:46 GMT
Reply-To: jwarner@NETWALK.COM
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Jeff Warner <jwarner@NETWALK.COM>
Subject: Still confused, looking for suggestions...
Good afternoon Volks!
You may recall I'm having a Oil High Pressure switch problem. I ignored it for
a few weeks while I was on vacation (not in the afflicted Westy). Now I'm back
and ready to make sense of it. This is an '86 Westy Weekender automatic with
97000 miles, new Mann filter and Castrol 20w50. Here are the symptoms:
From a cold start:
Low pressure switch indicates and functions normally.
Drive away while engine is still cold and high pressure switch sets off light
and buzzer.
Wait at least 3-4 minutes for engine to warm up and no problem.
From a warm start:
No problems at all.
While driving after warmed up:
No problems at all.
I can not understand how the oil pressure can be lower when the engine is
cold. I always have observed with my cars that have oil pressure guages that
the pressure is always highest when the engine is not yet up to opperating
temperatures. I've researched the archive documents on this subject and still
feel no closer to understanding what's wrong. I feel that the switch is
probably functioning correctly because it's working consistently. My only
thought is that the oil pump is taking a considerably long time to build up
pressure. But I think if that were the case I would see drop offs in pressure
that would cause either of the switches to send a signal at other times too
like while idling in the heat.
My other non-Vanagon VW friends are of the opinion that the high pressure
switches in VWs are for indicating a too high pressure condition. This
actually makes more sense with my symptoms. The Bentley doesn't help to make
this any clearer. It seems that the text and descriptions regarding the high
pressure switch could be easily interpreted either way.
At this point I'm inclined to go ahead and replace the switch anyway just to
see what happens. What fun!
Thoughts?????
Jeff Warner
'86 Wolfsburg Westfalia Weekender "Barry" - Buzzing down the road.
'87 GL Weekender "Van" - Leaking down the road.
Various other stuff