Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2014 18:15:08 -0800
Reply-To: Jeff Schwaia <vw.doka@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Jeff Schwaia <vw.doka@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Oil Pressure Light Flickering
In-Reply-To: <1857495E-AD7C-4787-9FC6-D8DDD9FBD7A4@q.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
What he said...
When overfilled, the spinning crankshaft will aerate the oil causing the
pressure to drop. You want your oil level to be between the lines when hot.
Cheers,
Jeff
-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Karl Wolz
Sent: Wednesday, February 19, 2014 4:40 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Oil Pressure Light Flickering
If the oil is overfilled, you may be whipping air into the oil, with a
resultant loss of pressure.
Karl Wolz
Sent from my electronic umbilicus
> On Feb 19, 2014, at 4:51 PM, Stuart MacMillan <stuartmacm@GMAIL.COM>
wrote:
>
> That is unusual, so I'm thinking it's a bad sender, or more likely the
> wire is intermittently shorting out on something with high vibrations
> from high revs. Your situation is the opposite of worn bearings.
>
> Add an oil pressure gauge and find out for sure! It's the only way
> you can really know what's going on with these engines.
>
> Stuart
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On
> Behalf Of Steven Shelton
> Sent: Wednesday, February 19, 2014 2:55 PM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Oil Pressure Light Flickering
>
> We left today in our 1985 1.9L Westfalia for a one week camping trip
> when about a hour from home in Interstate traffic the oil pressure
> lamp started flickering. I pulled over and checked the oil. If
> anything it was over the full mark. The engine sounded fine so i took
back roads to get home.
> The light stayed off at slow speeds or stop and go traffic, but at
> sustained speeds above 45 or 50 it would flicker, sometimes quickly
> and other times slowly on and off.
>
> The Castrol 20W50 oil only has about 1,500 miles on it, but it's been
> 6 months since it was changed. I'm changing it now.
>
> My question is, can there be a problem with low oil pressure if the
> light stays off at low RPM? From what I've read, it seem like when
> oil pressure is low the light is more likely to come on when the
> engine is idling, not when it's running at 50-60 MPH. The engine is
> VW rebuilt 8 years ago with
> 54,000 miles on it.
>
> Besides the oil change, the only other thing I can think of is to
> check the wiring at the sending unit when the engine cools down. Is
> there anything else I can do before we try to leave again?
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