Oil pressure warning light

[230TE]

Long time ago I had an old Audi 80 Sport, basically the same engine as a Mk2 Golf GTi. It had two oil pressure sensors, the usual 5 psi "your engine is borked" one and a second one which was linked to the rev counter, only operated above 2,000 rpm and set at something like 25 psi. The idea was that if you started to lose oil pressure at high speed, you would get an early warning while there was still enough oil circulating to stop the engine seizing. Very German.

I only found out all of this when I was doing 70ish, maybe a tiny teeny bit more on the motorway late at night, shortly after buying the car, when there was a loud buzzing noise and the oil pressure light lit up. I shat my pants, slowed down and the light and buzzer went out. Accelerated again and they came on. The engine was a bit tired, and half an hour at motorway speeds would get the oil hot enough to drop the pressure below 25 psi. I put 20w-50 oil in it and the problem went away. Nice car in its way, but not a keeper.

[Fastdruid]

Dixy said:

Hypothetical question.
You are travelling at 70 mph in lane 3 of a 4 lane smart motorway when your oil pressure warning light comes on.
What are you going to do.

Panic because my car doesn't have an oil pressure warning light!

But more seriously, push the the clutch down, drop it into neutral, hit the hazards then hit the start/stop button to stop the engine, then lift the clutch and press the button again so the steering lock doesn't come on, move into the inside lane then try and roll it to the nearest emergency refuge. If I'm not going to make it slow to a halt and abandon the car. It does depend on how busy things are but generally unless you're on the M25 my experience is you can usually make your way over and equally the reason for the hazards rather than just indicating is so you won't get fktards trying to prevent you "pushing in", I'd really hope that people would see them and give extra space but being honest I wouldn't hesitate to force my way over.

IME equally while the inside lane may be a "live" lane its still the safest (vs trying for the outside and abandoning) because not that many people use it, they're travelling slower and when you are out of the car you can get fully off the motorway, hiding between the barriers next to a stopped car on the outside lane is going to be sketchy as fk and if things *do* go wrong is highly likely to still involve you. The only time I'd stop in anything other than the inside lane would be if it was something *so* bad that I'd lose control otherwise, lost a wheel for example (assuming that by itself didn't lead to a loss of control).

[sean ie3]

Hope it never happens, an absolute nightmare on busy roads, with 'smart' motorway being some sort of misnomer. What are they thinking.