Oil Pressure Light
Discussion
My Tuscan has done approaching 16,000 miles with a "finger follower rebuild" at about 6,000 miles. I have had it for 3 to 4 months having bought it from a well known independant dealer. The car was serviced by TVR Power for the sale to me. I had problems with the car after about 6 weeks and it ended up back with Power with suspected head gasket failure. Up to that point in time it did not use any oil. I was told that the gasket had leaked in the past, but was not leaking at present. The car was running OK and I was advised that the warranty I had as part of the sale would not meet the costs of repair unless the gasket had failed. I was told to drive the car as hard as I could and make sure I had a good warranty. It does not really inspire confidence. To be fair, I have no issue with the work carried out by Power, which was paid for by the dealer.
Since I have had the car back, I noticed the car was losing oil. there was a leak and I had the oil pressure sender replaced. It cured the oil leak, but the car is still losing oil. There appears to be a bit of blue smoke sometimes at startup. Once warmed up, it seems to pull well.
I have today topped up the oil. I miscalculated and it is a couple of mls above the full mark. On driving the car at higher revs, the oil pressure light now comes on. Over the past week or so, when everything is up to temp, on tickover the oil pressure drops to vary between 3-8. I thought the pressure sender may be dodgy, but you can feel the engine at times on the verge of cutting out.
I think that I have used about 1 to 1 and a half litres of oil over the last 300 miles.
It does not seem to rattle or tap or make any other unusual noise.
Does it sound as if it's on the way out? If so, should it go back to the dealer, TVR Power or some other independant? Any advice would be appreciated.
Since I have had the car back, I noticed the car was losing oil. there was a leak and I had the oil pressure sender replaced. It cured the oil leak, but the car is still losing oil. There appears to be a bit of blue smoke sometimes at startup. Once warmed up, it seems to pull well.
I have today topped up the oil. I miscalculated and it is a couple of mls above the full mark. On driving the car at higher revs, the oil pressure light now comes on. Over the past week or so, when everything is up to temp, on tickover the oil pressure drops to vary between 3-8. I thought the pressure sender may be dodgy, but you can feel the engine at times on the verge of cutting out.
I think that I have used about 1 to 1 and a half litres of oil over the last 300 miles.
It does not seem to rattle or tap or make any other unusual noise.
Does it sound as if it's on the way out? If so, should it go back to the dealer, TVR Power or some other independant? Any advice would be appreciated.
Hi,
You *may* have some serious problems.
However it may be possible that you have caught what I had when I had my Tuscan: Tuscanoverworryitis.
The symptoms of this is that every sound from the engine or otherwise brings an instant search on Pistonheads and planning a trip to the dealer!
With regard to the oil light, at a guess, does it only flicker and flash at high revs? If so it would seem that the same thing is happening to you that happened to me. I had the oil pressure sensor changed, and as soon as that was done the oil light flickered at high revs. It never happened before.
With regard to oil usage and filling, I found that it was very difficult to get an accurate and consistant reading. I found the best way would be on a hot engine, turn the engine off and take a reading within 10 seconds. That got the most consistant readings, however, even taking one reading after the other they could vary by up to a centimetre. As far as I am aware, the dry sump structure of the oil system means that it is reasonably tolerant to overfilling. Other people have mentioned that overfilling would mean that it would 'burn off' the oil down to the standard level if overfilled which may account for the blue smoke.
I would go back and explain the problem with the oil pressure light, and get them to do an oil reading whilst asking about the blue smoke in case it does signify further trouble.
Hope this helps!
You *may* have some serious problems.
However it may be possible that you have caught what I had when I had my Tuscan: Tuscanoverworryitis.
The symptoms of this is that every sound from the engine or otherwise brings an instant search on Pistonheads and planning a trip to the dealer!
With regard to the oil light, at a guess, does it only flicker and flash at high revs? If so it would seem that the same thing is happening to you that happened to me. I had the oil pressure sensor changed, and as soon as that was done the oil light flickered at high revs. It never happened before.
With regard to oil usage and filling, I found that it was very difficult to get an accurate and consistant reading. I found the best way would be on a hot engine, turn the engine off and take a reading within 10 seconds. That got the most consistant readings, however, even taking one reading after the other they could vary by up to a centimetre. As far as I am aware, the dry sump structure of the oil system means that it is reasonably tolerant to overfilling. Other people have mentioned that overfilling would mean that it would 'burn off' the oil down to the standard level if overfilled which may account for the blue smoke.
I would go back and explain the problem with the oil pressure light, and get them to do an oil reading whilst asking about the blue smoke in case it does signify further trouble.
Hope this helps!
'Tuscanworryitis' - like that! Had myself a few times! The oil pressures do vary on a lot of cars, although 3psi seems low, and that's a fair amount of oil to be using. I've had a problem with my oil presure light flickering at high revs, even though the pressure readout didn't drop below 32psi.
Just had the sender unit replaced, and no more red light
Could be worth pressure checking the engine with a wet guage - I think it screws into the engine where the sender unit is.
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