HELP...vw transporter oil light probs

[bocky]

PLEASE can anyone help me with my transporters oil light problem ,it keeps flashing allmost constantly. i have changed oil, fillter, both oil presure switches, with no effect, infact all i do seems to make it flash more, first only used to flash on tickover.despite this it sounds and runs perfectly.

[a boardman]

could be the oil pump is on the way out and is not getting enough pressure to pump the oil around.

[bocky]

yea thats what i thought at first, but there is also a warning buzzer fitted for when presure gets to low.ive been told by somone at vw, could be one of two wires on back of altenator, sounds strange. will investigate,soon

[hman]

buy an oil pressure gauge (£15?)and plumb it in temporarily - that way you can rule out any engine damaging faults

[69 coupe]

We had a vw luton diesel LT35, had nothing but problems, engine was totally stripped & rebuilt by a so called engine re manufacturer, they were a right dodgy crowd.
Luckily my brother knew one of the dodgy rebuild crew, they did rebuild twice, but within days both engine rebuilds failed, in the end we rebuilt it ourselves.
It was true the dodgy engine re builder did their best(maybe)rebuilt with new gaskets rings & so forth.

The problem which we found was that the crankshaft was actually bent, engine could have been rebuilt 100 times but fault would have been the same.

I don't think this is your problem, just shows what can happen even with a dodgy engine builder & you have a friend on the inside.

Just to throw in another angle, if you end up with high pressure readings, a shell bearing can spin on the big end crank, this can cause big end failure due to oil bearing starvation this usually ends up with a high pressure reading because oil can't feed through the oil bearing shell hole, because the white metal bearing has slipped blocking the oil hole.

Most of this won't help, but i needed to get it of my chest

[bocky]

thanks 69. dont think that realy helped, but hope you can sleep easy now. lol.oil pressure guage seems a great idea, how easy are thry yo fit

[hman]

easy, they come with various adaptors and a length of coiled copper pipe.

Take out your oil pressure sender and screw in the adaptor and copper pipe connect guage, start engine - instant oil pressure readout.

Its hydraulic so takes all the electrical problems out of the equation.

I had a mk1 golf with indicated oil pressure probs, this was the only way to determine what oil pressure i was getting.

as an aside, on some vag cars there is a transistor on the back of the instrument panel which packs up giving a a false alarm reading as well.

Try the guage to ensure nothings wrong, then try that transistor its only a couple of quid for a new one.

Edited by hman on Saturday 29th March 10:49

[bocky]

thanks all for your help. seems it was conection on altenator after all. man at vw knows his stuff. saved me a few quid. plus can now spend more time watching the road and not a little red lamp

[bs99tf]

i had exactly the same problem, steady oil pressure light on ignition, flashing when it started up on 1997 1.9td vw t4. No one seemed to have a clue, oil levele fine, pressure tested and thats fine.

2 wires on back of alternator had snapped further up the loom. fixed in 5 minutes for the sake of 20p of connectors. Delighted with your advice, you've saved me a fortune.

cheers,
tom

[Lucky 13]

God dammit! I too have this issue and just last night my T4 was plugged in to a laptop with no issues to report, though my oil light is flashing as a constant. Will try what you suggest and cross fingers it turns the bLIGHTer off.

Also, anyone with glow plug light problem?

My dash is like a fking Christmas tree.

[Who me ?]

You could do worse than try this site -
http://briskoda.net/

Ok -it's a Skoda site - but who makes Skoda -VW ---and full of VW/Skoda/Seat experts all willing to help.

[daveshep]

thanks, my problem too, exactly right solution...you saved me a lot of time, appreciate it

[Cunny]

Hi I know i`m probably being thick here but I have an early T4 (M Reg) 2.4 Diesel with the Oil light constantly flickering on and off and the buzzer sounding constantly from the moment you switch the engine on till the moment you switch it off. I have taken out the dashboard and re-soldered all the cluster at the back (this has sorted out the fuel gauge as this was not working properly either but has not sorted out the buzzer or the light. I have tested the Low pressure switch and this is fine. Looking at the above news it sounds like it could be the cable issue but how do I know? There are two cables coming out of the alternator but this looks fine? I have tested the oil pressure levels etc and all are fine! Heeeeellllllp!

[John Newton]

I have a 1987 Petrol driven VW transporter campervan and oil pressure warning light and warning buzzer on dashboard come on reguliarly after 17 miles driving!!All the garages I have been to say it's an electrical fault and not the oil pump but no-one seems to be able to cure it;beginning to despair!! Any suggestions as to cause /how to cure it please? John from Derbyshire

[wolf1]

John Newton said:

I have a 1987 Petrol driven VW transporter campervan and oil pressure warning light and warning buzzer on dashboard come on reguliarly after 17 miles driving!!All the garages I have been to say it's an electrical fault and not the oil pump but no-one seems to be able to cure it;beginning to despair!! Any suggestions as to cause /how to cure it please? John from Derbyshire

Unplug it and fit an aftermarket oil pressure guage.

[legsio67]

I have the same problem on my T4 !! Oil light flashing and alternator light on. Checked output of alternator...nothing not a volt so replaced the alternator £205.00 !!! still didnt cure the problem.....everyone raves about these vans but mine has been nothing but trouble! the electrics on these pieces of sh.t are absolutely bloody ridiculous ! sorry to upset any T4 fans but you can keep them!!!!!!!!!

[cuffer]

I have had the same problem on a newly acquired vw t4 transporter 2002 model. Took back to dealer bought from and has now been round a few garages. They all thought was electrical problem but couldn't find the faulty wire. Finally ended up at a vw garage so they could run it through their analytics. Just heard today that the fault is not electrical but wrong grade of oil!

The van had 2 oil changes by 2 different garages while trying to find the problem, and they say they've never heard about vw transporters needing a 'different' grade of oil before? Get back tomorrow, so will let you know if it really is just the type of oil that's causing the problem.