anyone experienced this before.....

[tdm]

I lent my brother-in-law the cerbera for a week. gave him the list of do's and dont's and which readings to look out for etc.

apparently he was driving it one day and noticed that the oil psi just flopped to zero (the car was still just warming up i think). sensibly he cut the engine, abandoned the car and thumbed a lift to a garage where he got some oil. put a litre in, checked the level, all was fine, started her up and psi was all normal. car continues to drive (and sound) as wonderful as ever (has done over 250 miles since the "incident".

is it one of those quirky gauge issues do you think? or should alarm bells be ringing?

thought i'd check as its better to be safe than sorry (and by that I mean skint!)

[GreenV8S]

It seems unlikely that the oil pressure genuinely went to zero in normal gentle driving and then came back on its own. I'd be looking for a potential gauge fault, but assume the worst until the gauge was shown faulty. Do you have a low oil pressure warning light, separate from the oil pressure gauge? If so, and if the light works, and if it stayed off, then this tends to suggest that you did still have oil pressure and the gauge/wiring/sender is faulty. IMO the gauge is more likely to go wrong than the warning light.

[RUSSELLM]

I'd say he was doing a left turn and your oil was low (mine does it when the dipstick is halfway between the low & high positions).

If it does it when your oil level is towards the high position, I'd be inclined to invest in a new pressure relief switch.

I needed one of these after three days of ownership, along with a new pair of undercrackers.

>> Edited by RUSSELLM on Monday 8th August 15:16

[tdm]

Thanks guys.

I know he's put about 2 litres in to be safe and the level is sitting between the low and high marks (as i said, 250 miles later) .... having said that i'll do the 'leave the dipstick out overnight' trick for a proper reading (on the basis that it also applies 4.2's - can't see why not).

anyway, on a chipper note, was great to see the car rumbling back towards me when he returned the car after a week

[DuncanM]

tdm said:

I lent my brother-in-law the cerbera for a week. gave him the list of do's and dont's and which readings to look out for etc.

You lent your car to someone!

That's where you went wrong surely .

On a serious note if he's put in 2 litres and it's only half way up the dipstick then chances are it was pretty damn low when he got it?

Duncan

[gazzab]

2 litres to mid way ! Way to go! New engine will soon be reqd if you dont keep it at MAX at all times. Low oil in a cerb (or low water) is a serious no no. It isnt a vauxhall astra. Check both once a week (at least).

[tdm]

oil and water are checked twice a week. very much aware that this is not an astra thanks.

[tdm]

Again, thanks for your input guys. As it happens, he was doing a left turn when the psi reading went down .... bonus point for Russell then

clearly points should be taken away from my good self as there clearly wasn't enough oil in the car this is a mystery to me as I was sure it was OK when I tested it just before handing her over. It's not dropping any oil anywhere and it's running very nicely

3 litres have gone in since the 'scare' (which is half the capacity ) and its been sitting at the max level for quite some miles now.

Hoping it just needed a one-off fill. Anyway, thanks again on the psi reading