Oil Pressure Light

[Royster]

Pulling into work's carpark this morning, my oil pressure gauge went dead and the warning light came on. Before I had a chance to turn the engine off, the pressure went back to normal (50psi hot idle) and the light extinguished. Really seemed like an electrical fault to me, as the engine wasn't making any funny noises and the event took less than a second. Just wondering if the gauge and warning light share a common sensor? Car has oil temp gauge fitted instead of a clock if that makes any difference to sender locations.

Please, somebody reassure me that it's all fine.....

Edited by Royster on Wednesday 18th August 08:40

[touching cloth]

As far as I know gauge is mechanical, linked by tube and not electrical at all, if you had both gauge and light on then I think you may have had a "moment". Was it linked to turning left (I think it's left), if oil is getting low then you get a surge in the sump and temporary starvation... been there and done that, thankfully with no ill effects.

[Royster]

Yep, was a full-lock left and up a steep incline at jogging pace. I checked the oil straight after and it looked to have plenty, but it's not that easy to tell on the dipstick. Will check again at lunchtime once it's had a chance to settle and top-up if necessary. Cheers, Olly

[Gazzab]

Afaik it's important to keep the oil at max. At min it's too low. It's a god habit to keep at max.
Check oil every week. My approach is to leave the car overnight parked on a level surface. Next day remove dip stick, wipe and reinsert but don't twist lock it. Carefully remove again and check Reading. Repeat twice more so as to ensure it wasn't a misreading. I even check the front n back of dipstick to ensure all is ok.

[Gazzab]

Ignore my wipe business! You have a dry sump ajp so ihave no idea how to read it!

[Royster]

Thanks for the dipstick technique. To be honest, today was the first time I'd checked the oil level since I got the car a couple of weeks and 1100 miles ago; I'm not used to cars that use oil as a matter of course, so will be more attentive to her in future

[Gazzab]

Hopefully (?) it was low when you got it as 1100 miles shouldn't burn off a litre or so. And per previous if you have a challenge engine then it should dry dumped afaik. I understand that dry sump cars need a different technique to measure oil?

[Royster]

Ah well, thanks anyway. Looks like a call to the previous owner might be needed if I can't make sense of it.

Cheers

[Diablos-666]

you should measure the oil whilst the engine is hot. it should be checked within 30 secs of turning the engine off.

[Gazzab]

Diablos-666 said:

you should measure the oil whilst the engine is hot. it should be checked within 30 secs of turning the engine off.

is that for dry sumped (assuming it is a challenge engine and not an engine from a road going tuscan racer).

[Diablos-666]

as far am im aware that is how you check the oil level in all dry sump engines.

[touching cloth]

Tuscan race car derived engine could however still be a road engine originally, many of the early Tuscans were RV8s and may well have been converted to AJP by using the more easily obtainable road version - as such could be either wet or dry sump. However, given the fairly common symptom of dropping oil pressure on a left hand turn, I'd hazard it's still standard sump in use hence the surge - this can happen even if the oil is showing as between the min/max marks i.e. in theory showing as ok, in practice however it is better to keep it well up to the top and even if a bit over if needs be... these dipsticks are not an exact science.

[Royster]

Just done a bit of digging around and the engine in my Cerb was originally built for, and briefly fitted to, a Tuscan Challenge car, but was removed shortly after fitment as the owner decided he wanted a dry sump version instead. Guess it must be a wet-sump, then. It has a very long, bendy dipstick with about an inch of hard to read oil-level marker at the tip. Anyway, I'll top it up if it looks a bit low and dust off my AA card in case it drops again.

Thanks for all the help, chaps.

[ridds]

Dipstick attached to the front of the engine then it's a wet sump.

If it were a dry sump then there would be a big tank in the engine bay somewhere.

Oil level, imho should done hot e.g 80°C when you stop the engine pull the stick out and leave out for 2-3 mins before dipping. If you need to add oil, add it then wait another 2-3 mins for the oil to get to the sump before you recheck or you can easily over fill.

Similar with a dry sump, run to operating temp, stop and remove the stick then wait 2-3 mins. Checking after topping up very much depends on the design of the tank, the baffles inside and how the stick enters the fill point.

[Royster]

Just had a look and purple dipstick at the front of the engine was reading a bit low. Topped it up with all the oil I had with me (750ml) and ran the engine for a minute. Checked the dipstick again and it was even lower so I guess I need to let it drain back down into the sump for a bit. Will check again when I leave work and get some more oil if I need to.

Thanks

[FUBAR]

Ive always checked my oil cold. Leavings dipstick out overnight and inserting in the morning (fnaar) has always given me a good, clear reading.

[greenm]

I was always told that as well leave it overnight to all drain to the sump and check befor starting always have done it that way??

[Royster]

Topped it up to the maximum mark and no problems since. Thanks for all the advice chaps, was worried for a bit.

[mikeinsheffield]

FUBAR said:

Ive always checked my oil cold. Leavings dipstick out overnight and inserting in the morning (fnaar) has always given me a good, clear reading.

The advice I received from Joo (Ex TCS) reflects this ^^^^

As there is a long dipstick that twists and turns down to the sump, when checking the level and inserting / removing the dipstick oil can be drawn up into the "tube" which can give a false reading - therefore I leave the dip stick out overnight to let the oil level settle; then insert and withdraw ONCE to get the reading.