"BURNING" through oil pressure sensors. Too hot?

ROCKOROD71

ok, I've replaced my oil pressure sensor 3 times in the last 6 months on my 1600 dp AE engine. Very recently I installed an engine thermostat. All the flaps and linkages were already in place, the flaps were wired all the way open for a long time, I simply got a bracket and t-stat and installed them. Now I feel like I'm overheating or something, as I've blown through 2 oil pressure switches since installing the thermostat (which works well, I've sat and watched it expand and contract). The switches seem to die after long drives. After an hour or so drive I'll notice the light not coming on when I brake hard (its been flickering when coming to a stop for over a decade, through two different engines). After I stop and shut the engine off I turn the key and no oil light. go back and pull the wire and ground it, light comes on, another bum switch. Also notice a little oil had come out around the switch, should it be in tighter, like till i can't turn it anymore? I've read you're not supposed to overtighten the sensor so i've been tightening it till its just snug against the case. There has also been an ongoing leak by the oil pump cover plate but it is SUPER slow, and one of the three studs needs to be taken out and re-installed with lock tight or a heli-coil because once you get the nut tight enough the stud will turn with the nut, but as is I feed the engine about a pint of oil every 30-40 days of daily driving. Waiting to tackle this when replacing my muffler.
the last really long drive i went on i checked everything in the engine bay to look for overheating and the dipstick was hot but i could still grab it, but it was really hot when i pulled it and touched the actual dipstick by the full mark. Changing the oil this week to 20-50 for the summer but I doubt this is going to solve the problem. Was running 10-30 for the winter.

Any advise on some underlying issues that could be causing this? I plan on ordering a few switches today from different sources as the two I recently replaced were cheap chinese ones.
_________________
1971 STD BEETLE- 1st car, 1st love. goin for stock!
1977 WESTY "KrustyKamper" 2L FI **de-hippifying process beginning**
***Air Cooled Cruisers Of Central New England***

Listen to the Radiomancy Museum on Tues 5-7pm EST @ www.bostonfreeradio.com and let music find YOU! Sounds you can only hear if you're there!

drs1023 · Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 6:49 am Post subject:

Nowadays there are so many companies off-shoring their manufacturing that even former top name brands may now have poorer quality parts in the box.

It's good that you checked to make sure the thermostat is moving, but is it adjusted properly? Check a reputable manual for the proper adjustment of this piece of the puzzle.

ROCKOROD71 · Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 6:59 am Post subject:

yeah i thought of that, but I don't have a Bently (guess after akll these years I should pony up for one eh?) and there is little mention in the Haynes and Muir book about adjusting these. I just figured that to give the flaps the maximum amount of room to move, then the t-stat would have to be able to expand as far upward as possible, so i mounted the bracket as far up on the stud as it would go. I guess the only other thing I could do to adjust it would be to unscrew the stat from the rod a few turns to "legthen" the rod, letting the spring open the flaps a bit more. Once the stat was installed its pretty hard to tell when they are opened all the way. when it was out you could just reach behing the shroud and pull on the linkage to get it to close and open. maybe the spring is worn? Any tips on adjusting the stat guys?
_________________
1971 STD BEETLE- 1st car, 1st love. goin for stock!
1977 WESTY "KrustyKamper" 2L FI **de-hippifying process beginning**
***Air Cooled Cruisers Of Central New England***

Listen to the Radiomancy Museum on Tues 5-7pm EST @ www.bostonfreeradio.com and let music find YOU! Sounds you can only hear if you're there!

ejonn · Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 7:08 am Post subject:

http://www.vw-resource.com/thermostat.html

ROCKOROD71 · Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 9:10 am Post subject:

awesome, thanks, will definitely run that procedure when i do the oil change, switch swap when this rain dies down. Any other suggestions or stuff i should look at?
thanks sambans, once again!
_________________
1971 STD BEETLE- 1st car, 1st love. goin for stock!
1977 WESTY "KrustyKamper" 2L FI **de-hippifying process beginning**
***Air Cooled Cruisers Of Central New England***

Listen to the Radiomancy Museum on Tues 5-7pm EST @ www.bostonfreeradio.com and let music find YOU! Sounds you can only hear if you're there!

ejonn · Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 2:41 pm Post subject:

If you dont have any kind of temp gauge, a cheap and effective alternative is the dipstick sensor. They work really well. At least it will tell you if in fact you are running into an overtemp.

Randy in Maine · Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 3:06 pm Post subject:

Might buy a better OP sender....

http://www.germansupply.com/home/customer/product.php?productid=17033&cat=&page=1

JerryMCarter1 · Posted: Mon Apr 23, 2012 8:44 pm Post subject:

dipstick sensor.

X2
_________________
Experience always triumphs over hearsay and You get to select which theory to believe

ROCKOROD71 · Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 6:09 am Post subject:

Thanks guys, i will look into those too. Gotta protect my baby! Sounds like a good compromise as I'm not looking to mod my dash and wire anything new in, already got a wiring rats nest I'm trying to keep up with!
_________________
1971 STD BEETLE- 1st car, 1st love. goin for stock!
1977 WESTY "KrustyKamper" 2L FI **de-hippifying process beginning**
***Air Cooled Cruisers Of Central New England***

Listen to the Radiomancy Museum on Tues 5-7pm EST @ www.bostonfreeradio.com and let music find YOU! Sounds you can only hear if you're there!

RocketA · Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 7:01 am Post subject:

ROCKOROD71 · Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 7:21 am Post subject:

I don't currently have any wiring problems, the oil light goes on when grounded like it should and all my lights and electronics are working (knock on wood), I think I've just got some cheap chinese crap sensors (they were $4 apiece). My compression was tested a few months back at 110 all cylinders and there has been no loss of power or rough running, the engine has been running strong and smooth as of late. The dipstick was hot (the part that goes into the case, but i could still grab the handle after the sensor blew out, and like i said before, there was oil around the sensor where there had been none before i replaced it, so i think it wasn't tightened properly or something. I will try your trick for tightening via the wilson book, and I ordered some quality hella sensors yesterday, so we'll see how those do. I've got a 71 so my air cleaner has the wax thermostat regulating the pre-heater flaps, and it works and is adjusted correctly to get cooler air in after warmup. My engine thermostat will get an adjustment this week to make sure the flaps are opening all the way when i change my oil (20-50 going in for summer). Also found a nice hole in my air tube for the air cleaner preheat so that'll get replaced too. I'll report back here to help solve this problem for future vee-dubbers....
_________________
1971 STD BEETLE- 1st car, 1st love. goin for stock!
1977 WESTY "KrustyKamper" 2L FI **de-hippifying process beginning**
***Air Cooled Cruisers Of Central New England***

Listen to the Radiomancy Museum on Tues 5-7pm EST @ www.bostonfreeradio.com and let music find YOU! Sounds you can only hear if you're there!

evilphoton · Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 8:55 am Post subject:

electrical problems can be intermittent though, especially troublesome to find. by just moving the wire for the sender (if it's frayed inside somewhere) can close the circuit... for a while.

candymustang66 · Samba Member Joined: April 24, 2012 Posts: 2353

screw in a pressure gage, and find out the truth , hot. why blame a good switch?

the lever for the thermostat is in plane view , bottom right on fan housing.
it's straight up cold. then moves to hot.
missing tins?
calibrate the thermostat!
but first remove it and bracket, and heat itt with a heat gun to 70c:
it must expand to top and hitt (never do this with bracket removed)

some folks get a cheap long rod, meat thermometers at ROSS.
then remove the DIP stick and shove it till itt hits oil. (got to be long enough)
5 inches long with oil at max. (min length)

first get the facts (temps/pressure, and tests) then attack the real problems.

happy trails.

ROCKOROD71 · Posted: Tue Apr 24, 2012 10:01 am Post subject:

ROCKOROD71 · Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 10:45 am Post subject:

so update....
did my oil change, installed new preheat hose and got my new German Hella oil pressure switches. OIl light came right back on with the new switch. Also noticed that the threaded part on the hella switch was about 1/4 inch shorter than on the cheap switch! Shocked

is this a big deal? seems if its going further into the case that might have some effect. Also, the hella switches didn't come with a washer like other switches i've had (even the cheap ones) so i took the washer off the cheap one and put it on the hella switch. Is this advisable? I'll get some pics up when i get a chance. Also noticed that when threading the new switch in, I could wiggle it around a bit even when threaded. Does this mean the threads in the case are gone? Once it was in all the way (installed via the Tom Wilson procedure, hand tight, then one turn on the wrench) there was no play on it. Ran the engine and observed no leaks around the switch. drove for a bit and oil light worked as normal. Hopefully this solves the switch issue!
_________________
1971 STD BEETLE- 1st car, 1st love. goin for stock!
1977 WESTY "KrustyKamper" 2L FI **de-hippifying process beginning**
***Air Cooled Cruisers Of Central New England***

Listen to the Radiomancy Museum on Tues 5-7pm EST @ www.bostonfreeradio.com and let music find YOU! Sounds you can only hear if you're there!

Cusser · Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 11:21 am Post subject:

The case threads are slightly pitched, a pipe thread. That's where the seal (and electrical ground) is made. A washer really won't help, might actually hurt because you lose its thickness as threads.

The snout threaded length is not relevant. If yours doesn't wiggle or leak as you have it now, I wouldn't touch it.
_________________
1970 VW (owned since 1972) and 1971 VW Convertible (owned since 1976), second owner of each. The '71 now has the 1835 engine, swapped from the '70. Second owner of each. 1988 Mazda B2200 truck, 1998 Frontier, 2004 Yukon, 2004 Frontier King Cab. All manual transmission except for the Yukon. http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=335294 http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=335297

ROCKOROD71 · Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 11:25 am Post subject:

hmmm...should i take the washer out then? the previous 3 types of switches i've had have all had them...
_________________
1971 STD BEETLE- 1st car, 1st love. goin for stock!
1977 WESTY "KrustyKamper" 2L FI **de-hippifying process beginning**
***Air Cooled Cruisers Of Central New England***

Listen to the Radiomancy Museum on Tues 5-7pm EST @ www.bostonfreeradio.com and let music find YOU! Sounds you can only hear if you're there!

Cusser · Posted: Thu Apr 26, 2012 11:40 am Post subject:

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