Date: Sun, 7 Nov 2010 16:42:09 -0800
Reply-To: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Subject: Re: Hello - Idiot oil light keeps coming on!
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well it shouldn't be impossible to fix if it's an electrical problem ..
or even bypass the entire stock circuit.
it's a hyper simple circuit.
It would be very easy to wire an entire independent circuit , if that's what
it took to determine for sure there is no real oil pressure problem.
or install an oil pressure gauge.
waterboxer engines are a little harder than most engines to put an oil
pressure gauge on ..
since OP switch location is between push rod tubes under a cover on the
bottom of the left head.
I have one on my 85 Westy GL that's for sale..
had to engineer in a proper metal pipe, well supported against vibration
stress....to mount the OP gauge sender and the original OP sender remotely a
little.
but that works.
It's good to make it so it's easy to get at the oil pressure switch under
the left head.
I often only use one of the two upper mounting tabs on that push rod cover
tin..
it won't go anywhere with one upper mounting tab and two lower bolts. ..
that way it's easy to get off.
heck....you can even run without that cover in place until you get the oil
pressure switch issue handled for good.
this is how simple a basic oil pressure switch is wired -
12 volts 'ignition on' goes to a light bulb with two contacts, to one of the
contacts.
the other contact is connected to the oil pressure switch, which supplies
ground ( thus turning on the light ) any time there is less than whatever
the threshold pressure is ..
it's like 6 psi.
that's all an oil pressure warning light circuit is.
as simple as a tail light circuit.
If there is weirdness or poor contact in the instrument cluster area say ..
that might be hard to find ...sure ..
but basic understanding of the circuit and how it works, and testing or
substituting is very, very easy.
particularly in a 1.9 wbxr.
the 2.1 circuit is much more complicated..
but the 1.9 wbxr one is as simple as they get.
Shouldn't be impossible to fix.
It is after all, just a blockage or leakage of fluids or electrons..
and since your engine hasn't blown up or seized, it's like an electrical
issue.
Oil pressure switches are inexpensive too. ( if that's where the problem
is )
Scott
www.turbovans.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Joy Hecht" <jhecht@ALUM.MIT.EDU>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Sunday, November 07, 2010 9:00 AM
Subject: Re: Hello - Idiot oil light keeps coming on!
> Mine has mysteriously gone on and off for years. Assuming we're talking
> about the same light - the one that's at around "eight o'clock" on the
> dial
> with the tach. The one that should come on for a second or two when you
> turn the engine on, just to check that it's working, and then go off.
>
> I've heard every explanation under the sun for why it comes on and off,
> ranging from dirty contacts somewhere to having the wrong kind of oil
> filter. Nothing has ever stopped it. But it's intermittent - it won't go
> on for a month or two, then it takes to going on and off. I could be
> driving for four hours - it will go on at the start of hour two, go off at
> hour three, come on again at hour four. Definitely not related to oil
> levels, coolant levels, weather, speed, distance recently driven, or
> anything else at all obvious.
>
> Drives me NUTS. You'd think by now, after seven years with Matilda, I'd
> learn to just ignore it. But no, every time it erratically comes on I get
> stressed and worry madly that my engine is about to seize up on me or fall
> out (okay, not really) or some other dreadful thing is about to happen.
>
> FWIW, the time I blew a coolant hose at 70 mph in Indiana and then blew
> the
> engine, that light also came on and the temp needle skyrocked, the warning
> buzzer came on, vast clouds of steam emerged from the back of the van,
> instant panic set in because I thought I had an engine fire, then in due
> course (after many tows and two weeks in Rockford, Michigan) my engine was
> replaced new-to-me one from Bob Donalds, wiht much help from Brien Dews,
> Billy Hurt, and various other southern Michigan vanagonauts.
>
> The light also came on the time I developed a coolant leak on the entrance
> ramp between the Garden State Parkway and Rte 78 in New Jersey, followed
> by
> the buzzer going on, the temp needle skyrocketing, me instantly turning
> off
> the engine and pulling over (probably in that order), then sitting for
> HOURS
> in the dark on the shoulder while the Powers that Be tried to decide under
> whose jurisdiction the entrance ramp was, and therefore who should send me
> a
> towtruck. (Thank goodness no steam or blown engine that time - once was
> QUITE enough!)
>
> But usually when that light goes on nothing else happens except that I get
> really stressed out. And then after a while it goes off again.
>
> If anyone knows how to FIX IT FOREVER, please let me know!!!!!
>
>
>
>
> Joy
>
>
>
> On Sun, Nov 7, 2010 at 3:33 AM, Ken Olsen <648.ken@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> >
>> >Started up and the idiot light was flickering off just about 3/k revs.
>> >
>>
>>
>> Had this happen recently as well on my 1.9 WBX. Turned out the sensor
>> wire
>> was vibrating against the exhaust and had melted and was shorting out. It
>> would mysteriously come and go.
>>
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