Date: Sun, 6 May 2007 23:32:53 -0700
Reply-To: Thomas Pfrommer <pfrommer@PHAS.UBC.CA>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Thomas Pfrommer <pfrommer@PHAS.UBC.CA>
Subject: Re: oil pressure
In-Reply-To: <545879.12361.qm@web82710.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
Hi David,
thanks for your reply. Hm could be the water pump, even though I do not
hear any noise. The engine just sounds great! One thing is after
replacing the temperature sender, the water temperature rises until
almost above the location of the red light, before the fan kicks in and
levels it there. If I recall right, before the engine failure, the fan
kicked in when the reading was before the red light location was
touched. Could be that the water gets somehow too hot and the engine is
just too hot, getting the oil too thin and the pressure drops to a too
low level. I can still feel water running through the pipes though and
the radiator gets hot and I tried my best to bleed all air out of the
cooling system. The thermostat is full of water and I only had water
coming out of the radiator bleeding valve. As my water pump does not
make noises, removing the belt would not help in my case, unfortunately,
I guess. The belt does not look too bad either, but perhaps I should
replace it just in case the water pump does not get driven at the right
speed. The tension on the belt seems to be within the specs, given in
Bentley for not new ones, but well, I'd rather have anything outside
than taking all out again ...
Cheers
Thomas
David Kao wrote:
> --- Jonathan Farrugia <jfarrugi@UMICH.EDU> wrote:
>
>
>> if you didn't line bore the case that is most likely your problem thinks
>> me.
>>
>> jonathan
>>
>> On Sat, 5 May 2007, Thomas Pfrommer wrote:
>>
>>
>>> Dear VW community,
>>> I know this is a well-discussed problem
>>>
>
> Thomas:
>
> Just about two weeks ago I too experienced low oil pressure warning light blinking
> problem after driving on the freeway for 5 to 10 miles. The warning light would begin
> to blink when I came off the freeway and came to a stop waiting for traffic signal
> to go green. Besides, my hydraulic lifter noise became very loud. The noise would
> go away after I rev'ed the engine up and down a few times. But the low oil pressure
> light would continue to blink or even stayed on when the engine was idling.
>
> I searched the list archive and found the same article about rod bearing getting
> out of round and created excessive clearance to cause oil pressure to drop. I was
> kind of shocked and feared that my 84 Vanagon with 150K original miles was near
> the end of its usable life.
>
> Guess what? I had the problem fixed and it had nothing to do with any rod bearing
> clearance at all.
>
> I had my 84 Vanagon in NOP for the past 4 years parked on my drive way. During the
> 4 years I only started the engine once every month or two for a few minutes. Before
> I put it in NOP it was still driven almost daily without ever seeing the warning
> light blinked once.
>
> It turned out that after 4 years in NOP my heater valve began to leak. It was located
> behind the radiator and was kind of heard to get to. So I delayed doing anything to
> it but kept on topping up the coolant.
>
> Well I had topped up with fresh tap water a few times when I was in a rush. Last week
> the engine began to make huge clicking noise. That's after I found the rod bearing
> article from the archive. I thought my engine was at a point to throw a rod and make
> an extra hole on the engine case. But strangely enough it was still running very well
> except the noise. I even began to look around for a replacement engine to buy.
>
> Somehow I decided to remove the belt to silent the water pump and alternator so that
> I could listen to the engine noise more clearly. What I found was without the belt
> there was no noise!!! It was the water pump that was rubbing against the case inside
> that made the noise. So I replaced the water pump and sure enough the noise was gone.
> I had correct 40/60 dilution of the coolant now.
>
> Today I drove it to Yosemite and back (300 miles). The low oil pressure light did not
> blink even once. I don't know how it has anything to do with water pump. Perhaps when
> the water pump was on the way out the engine became too hot although it wasn't shown
> on the gauge.
>
> I still had one problem though. I had to drive to Yosemite today with an additional
> 1.9 engine loosely coupled to my original engine. This loosly coupling means a big
> sheet of cardboard on the Vanagon to keep the 2nd engine from destroying the
> carpet. I had bought a used 1.9 for less than $100 and kept it on the Vanagon before
> realizing the problem with the water pump. Now that the problem is fixed I kind
> had to carry the additional engine around. This engine looks a little tired and with
> a missing water pump now.
>
> David
>
>
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