Oil pressure warning light
Discussion
As others have said - get it into neutral asap. You do not want the effect of a seized engine locking your wheels up at motorway speeds. In many cars, it would probably just break the transmission or clutch and the wheels would start turning again, but I wouldn't take the chance. Now switch the engine off (you can at least try to save it). Over to the left and coast to the best safe place to stop. You've got a reasonable amount of momentum at 70, so even on a smart motorway you may be able to coast to one of the rescue areas with hazards on - maybe.
Mave said:
So if a car puts its hazards on at 50mph of lane 1 of a motorway, and you don't know why, what would you do? Give it more space maybe? Or overtake it briskly rather than dawdling past? Or maybe just be more alert? Maybe, if the oil light has come on, the driver doesn't know if they are going to make it to the exit up ahead, and would rather not having someone right behind them in case the engine seizes?
Well any sensible driver in that scenario would just pull onto the hard shoulder and stop and then put their hazard lights on, (personally I'd just indicate left and pull on the hard shoulder)
hellorent said:
Mave said:
So if a car puts its hazards on at 50mph of lane 1 of a motorway, and you don't know why, what would you do? Give it more space maybe? Or overtake it briskly rather than dawdling past? Or maybe just be more alert? Maybe, if the oil light has come on, the driver doesn't know if they are going to make it to the exit up ahead, and would rather not having someone right behind them in case the engine seizes?
Well any sensible driver in that scenario would just pull onto the hard shoulder and stop and then put their hazard lights on, (personally I'd just indicate left and pull on the hard shoulder)
hellorent said:
Mave said:
What, you see a car in front of you put their hazards on so you'd pull over and put yours on? Really?
You really thought that is what I meant :laughDid you really think that your post answered my question
"So if a car puts its hazards on at 50mph of lane 1 of a motorway, and you don't know why, what would you do? Give it more space maybe? Or overtake it briskly rather than dawdling past? Or maybe just be more alert?"?
(note - that's actually a rhetorical question. I don't actually think that you thought you'd answered my question. I think that you chose to answer a different question. So could you answer the question I did ask instead please?
) Edited by Mave on Sunday 20th November 20:48
[Pedantry] Some Smart Motorways DO have hard shoulders. There are Smart Motorways that operate like any normal motorway (M60 around the Trafford Centre, for example), some have dynamic hard shoulders (M6 near Birmingham) and some are "ALR" or All Lanes Running motorways (M62 J10-12). You seem to be referring to these. [/Pedantry]
I've had to stop on an ALR motorway when my car gave me a frightening shriek of "Coolant temperature too high, stop immediately". I was in lane 3, rush hour. I let off the accelerator, hazards on until a gap appeared in the middle lane, hazards off and indicated in, hazards back on, repeat to get in the left lane, now doing about 40mph, and rolled into one of those bright yellow safety laybys. Not a pleasant experience by any means. The first feeling was panic knowing that you've got nowhere dedicated to stop that's easy to reach. Total time from warning to stopping was probably under a minute. I'd wager even an engine with no oil circulation would last that long with residual oil so I'd probably do the same thing.
I've had to stop on an ALR motorway when my car gave me a frightening shriek of "Coolant temperature too high, stop immediately". I was in lane 3, rush hour. I let off the accelerator, hazards on until a gap appeared in the middle lane, hazards off and indicated in, hazards back on, repeat to get in the left lane, now doing about 40mph, and rolled into one of those bright yellow safety laybys. Not a pleasant experience by any means. The first feeling was panic knowing that you've got nowhere dedicated to stop that's easy to reach. Total time from warning to stopping was probably under a minute. I'd wager even an engine with no oil circulation would last that long with residual oil so I'd probably do the same thing.
I've had something just as scary. Alternator failure in my BMW E46 330 while driving in the dark on a very busy M4 motorway, London bound between Slough and the Colnbrook Bypass.
First sign of trouble was that my dash lit up like a Christmas tree, but no real indication of what was going on. I was in lane three or four, and tried to indicate to move over towards the hard shoulder. But it turned out that the system voltage was too low for my indicators to work, and the traffic was too dense to just change lanes without indicators. Then my headlights went out, followed shortly by all the dashboard instruments. No speedometer, rev counter fuel or temperature gauge. Finally, the engine lost power and I had to try to force myself through the traffic onto the hard shoulder. Thank goodness there was one. Without a hard shoulder I can't imagine what might have happened. Personally, I think Smart Motorways are the least smart idea ever conceived. They would be immediately returned to hard shoulder use if it were up to me.
That was one of only two times I had to call out rescue in 20 years driving that car. The other time I'd managed to run out of fuel while the gauge said I still had 1/4 of a tank. Turns out that the car needs time to calibrate itself against a replacement fuel sender.
First sign of trouble was that my dash lit up like a Christmas tree, but no real indication of what was going on. I was in lane three or four, and tried to indicate to move over towards the hard shoulder. But it turned out that the system voltage was too low for my indicators to work, and the traffic was too dense to just change lanes without indicators. Then my headlights went out, followed shortly by all the dashboard instruments. No speedometer, rev counter fuel or temperature gauge. Finally, the engine lost power and I had to try to force myself through the traffic onto the hard shoulder. Thank goodness there was one. Without a hard shoulder I can't imagine what might have happened. Personally, I think Smart Motorways are the least smart idea ever conceived. They would be immediately returned to hard shoulder use if it were up to me.
That was one of only two times I had to call out rescue in 20 years driving that car. The other time I'd managed to run out of fuel while the gauge said I still had 1/4 of a tank. Turns out that the car needs time to calibrate itself against a replacement fuel sender.
hellorent said:
Mave said:
Maybe because they are trying to get to a safer place to stop
And how does that help, with hazard lights on I don't know which direction you are intending on going, with aindicator at least you are telling me your direction of travel.
"So if a car puts its hazards on at 50mph of lane 1 of a motorway, and you don't know why, what would you do? Give it more space maybe? Or overtake it briskly rather than dawdling past? Or maybe just be more alert?"
Someone with an indicator on is normal and personally I'm more likely to treat it as a normal situation.
Someone with their hazards on is not normal and personally I'm more likely to treat them as a hazard
How about you?
Mave said:
I've asked you a couple of times now what you works do if you saw a car with hazard lights on. Why don't you answer that question? Here is what I wrote
"So if a car puts its hazards on at 50mph of lane 1 of a motorway, and you don't know why, what would you do? Give it more space maybe? Or overtake it briskly rather than dawdling past? Or maybe just be more alert?"
Someone with an indicator on is normal and personally I'm more likely to treat it as a normal situation.
Someone with their hazards on is not normal and personally I'm more likely to treat them as a hazard
How about you?
It's none of your business what I would do, my question was not relative to motorways, but to why drivers"So if a car puts its hazards on at 50mph of lane 1 of a motorway, and you don't know why, what would you do? Give it more space maybe? Or overtake it briskly rather than dawdling past? Or maybe just be more alert?"
Someone with an indicator on is normal and personally I'm more likely to treat it as a normal situation.
Someone with their hazards on is not normal and personally I'm more likely to treat them as a hazard
How about you?
drive with their hazards lights on mainly when they are pulling over to stop.
hellorent said:
Mave said:
I've asked you a couple of times now what you works do if you saw a car with hazard lights on. Why don't you answer that question? Here is what I wrote
"So if a car puts its hazards on at 50mph of lane 1 of a motorway, and you don't know why, what would you do? Give it more space maybe? Or overtake it briskly rather than dawdling past? Or maybe just be more alert?"
Someone with an indicator on is normal and personally I'm more likely to treat it as a normal situation.
Someone with their hazards on is not normal and personally I'm more likely to treat them as a hazard
How about you?
It's none of your business what I would do, my question was not relative to motorways, but to why drivers"So if a car puts its hazards on at 50mph of lane 1 of a motorway, and you don't know why, what would you do? Give it more space maybe? Or overtake it briskly rather than dawdling past? Or maybe just be more alert?"
Someone with an indicator on is normal and personally I'm more likely to treat it as a normal situation.
Someone with their hazards on is not normal and personally I'm more likely to treat them as a hazard
How about you?
drive with their hazards lights on mainly when they are pulling over to stop.
FWIW I'd much rather the car in front of me put their hazards on whilst they are trying to find a safe place to stop.
Edited by Mave on Sunday 27th November 14:40
Mave said:
hellorent said:
Mave said:
I've asked you a couple of times now what you works do if you saw a car with hazard lights on. Why don't you answer that question? Here is what I wrote
"So if a car puts its hazards on at 50mph of lane 1 of a motorway, and you don't know why, what would you do? Give it more space maybe? Or overtake it briskly rather than dawdling past? Or maybe just be more alert?"
Someone with an indicator on is normal and personally I'm more likely to treat it as a normal situation.
Someone with their hazards on is not normal and personally I'm more likely to treat them as a hazard
How about you?
It's none of your business what I would do, my question was not relative to motorways, but to why drivers"So if a car puts its hazards on at 50mph of lane 1 of a motorway, and you don't know why, what would you do? Give it more space maybe? Or overtake it briskly rather than dawdling past? Or maybe just be more alert?"
Someone with an indicator on is normal and personally I'm more likely to treat it as a normal situation.
Someone with their hazards on is not normal and personally I'm more likely to treat them as a hazard
How about you?
drive with their hazards lights on mainly when they are pulling over to stop.
FWIW I'd much rather the car in front of me put their hazards on whilst they are trying to find a safe place to stop.
Edited by Mave on Sunday 27th November 14:40
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