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sgraham602
Samba Member
Joined: August 10, 2016
Posts: 140
Location: Chapel Hill, NC
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 Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2016 8:24 am Post subject: Oil Pressure Light |
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So I am gearing up for our first trip in the bus! (outside of me driving it from FL to NC when I bought it). I've had a few cases around town that have caused concern. A couple of times I've been sitting at a stop light and the oil light will start flickering or in some cases when I'm braking it will come on and then go back off. I'm assuming this is from the oil moving as I turn or come to a stop. Is this an indication that I am low on oil? I checked the dip stick and I'm actually closer to the top end of the marks...however, I have no clue if the dipstick that I have is the correct one for the bus. Any thoughts?
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sgraham602
Samba Member
Joined: August 10, 2016
Posts: 140
Location: Chapel Hill, NC
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| Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2016 8:53 am Post subject: Re: Oil Pressure Light |
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I also have no idea when the valves were adjusted last...I'm wondering if a full tune up would be a good starting point.
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aerosurfer
Samba Member
Joined: March 25, 2012
Posts: 1602
Location: Indianapolis, IN
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| Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2016 9:50 am Post subject: Re: Oil Pressure Light |
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| sgraham602 wrote: |
| I also have no idea when the valves were adjusted last...I'm wondering if a full tune up would be a good starting point. |
That goes without saying...
Do valves, timing and an oil change at the least. The pressure light is known to flicker at idle if the oil is really thinning out or your system is not as tight as it once was. Try using a thicker oil in your change, 20w-50.
Fill it right up to the top mark or just above. Plenty of room in the bottom of the case for it without worry.
How about some engine pics to see if we notice any other areas of concern
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WhirledTraveller
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Joined: January 09, 2008
Posts: 1399
Location: Cambridge, MA
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| Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2016 9:56 am Post subject: Re: Oil Pressure Light |
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If you have the stock oil pressure sender, a flickering light at idle or during braking is a sign of "bad things" and not likely caused by oil sloshing around.
If I was you I would get myself a mechanical oil pressure gauge, an appropriate thread adapter (m10x1 NOT NPT) and see what the pressure was on a warm engine at RPM. If you aren't getting about 30psi at 3000 rpm then you have low oil pressure problems and maybe a rebuild in your future.
What weight oil are you running?
And a full tune up is almost always a good idea especially prior to your first big trip.
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aerosurfer
Samba Member
Joined: March 25, 2012
Posts: 1602
Location: Indianapolis, IN
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| Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2016 10:04 am Post subject: Re: Oil Pressure Light |
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| sgraham602 wrote: |
| however, I have no clue if the dipstick that I have is the correct one for the bus. Any thoughts? |
Do an oil change, put a full 4 qts of oil in, including the filter, you will be just over the full mark on the dipstick. What gives you the idea you would have the wrong dipstick?
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77 Westy 2.0L Rockin and Rolling Resto!
72 Sportsmobile (sold)
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SGKent 
Samba Member
Joined: October 30, 2007
Posts: 41031
Location: Citrus Heights CA (Near Sacramento)
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| Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2016 10:14 am Post subject: Re: Oil Pressure Light |
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1) check the oil every time you buy gasoline. Do not assume it is like a newer car. These buses can easily use a quart in two gas fills. If worn or brand new they can consume a quart in 150 miles.
2) Next time you change the oil and filter, check the level after it runs for a minute. Make sure the oil put in and the dip stick agree.
3) If the light still flickers on braking check your brake booster to be sure it does not leak vacuum. A mis-adjusted engine, or leaking brake booster can cause it to run at a very low RPM, which can drop the oil pressure.
4) study the owner's manual for oil viscosity recommendations. Running something like 5W-20 in summer in a bus will result in low oil pressure and possible engine damage. Running 20w-50 in winter may be so thick that it is more like gear oil than engine oil, and again result in possible engine damage. The owner's manual is the place to start with an understanding of what your engine needs.
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busdaddy
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Joined: February 12, 2004
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Location: Surrey B.C. Canada, but thinking of Ukraine
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| Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2016 10:19 am Post subject: Re: Oil Pressure Light |
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A dying O ring in the oil pump or pickup tube can also cause a light when braking, but do all the basic stuff first.
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sgraham602
Samba Member
Joined: August 10, 2016
Posts: 140
Location: Chapel Hill, NC
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| Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2016 10:26 am Post subject: Re: Oil Pressure Light |
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| WhirledTraveller wrote: |
What weight oil are you running?
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20W-50
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sgraham602
Samba Member
Joined: August 10, 2016
Posts: 140
Location: Chapel Hill, NC
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| Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2016 10:56 am Post subject: Re: Oil Pressure Light |
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| WhirledTraveller wrote: |
If I was you I would get myself a mechanical oil pressure gauge, an appropriate thread adapter (m10x1 NOT NPT) and see what the pressure was on a warm engine at RPM. If you aren't getting about 30psi at 3000 rpm then you have low oil pressure problems and maybe a rebuild in your future.
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Would that just thread into where the oil pressure sensor is located?
Would it be wise for me to add additional gauges up front? Oil Temp and Oil Pressure?
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Danwvw
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Joined: July 31, 2012
Posts: 8892
Location: Oregon Coast
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| Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2016 11:15 am Post subject: Re: Oil Pressure Light |
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Such a classic thing, I did not know the type 4 engine still behaved like the old single relief Type 1 engines. Some things just haunt the Volkswagen Air Cooled engines. Sounds like good advice above though! Yeah, if the oil comes on when coming to a stop it must be down to the add oil mark. I would add a quart. But winter is coming and it's time for some 10W40 next oil change. That will probably make the oil light flicker at Idle worse though. Hopefully it's that oring or something I would also try a new oil pump. Mobil One has a new motor oil out that should help, it's 0W40 full Synthetic though.
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WhirledTraveller
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Joined: January 09, 2008
Posts: 1399
Location: Cambridge, MA
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| Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2016 11:17 am Post subject: Re: Oil Pressure Light |
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| sgraham602 wrote: |
| WhirledTraveller wrote: |
If I was you I would get myself a mechanical oil pressure gauge, an appropriate thread adapter (m10x1 NOT NPT) and see what the pressure was on a warm engine at RPM. If you aren't getting about 30psi at 3000 rpm then you have low oil pressure problems and maybe a rebuild in your future.
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Would that just thread into where the oil pressure sensor is located?
Would it be wise for me to add additional gauges up front? Oil Temp and Oil Pressure? |
Up to you... some run gauges, some don't... Personally I run a full set of gauges because I put a lot of work into my rebuild and I like to keep an eye on how things are going. But VW designed it with an alternator light, an oil pressure light, and that's it and they had millions of happy customers driving around. But if the oil pressure light is going off then perhaps it's time to investigate the oil pressure, no? That's what it's there for, low oil pressure warning. BTW a flickering oil pressure light sometimes indicates the engine is overheating.... oil gets so hot it gets really thin. Sometimes it indicates the sender or wiring is bad. Sometimes it indicates the oil pickup tube is sucking air either due to low oil level or leaky pickup o-ring. Sometimes it just indicates too low of an idle RPM. So, you need to start the process of elimination.
And yes you can just screw a gauge into the hole the sender goes into. Like I said, it's metric, a straight cut thread. Most gauges come with NPT threads. If you use an NPT thread it'll appear to fit. But it could damage the threads since NPT is a tapered thread. You might get away with it if you just screw it in finger tight and accept a little leakage during the test.
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sgraham602
Samba Member
Joined: August 10, 2016
Posts: 140
Location: Chapel Hill, NC
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| Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2016 11:29 am Post subject: Re: Oil Pressure Light |
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To be honest, yesterday after driving around town and experiencing a flickering oil pressure light as I pulled into my neighborhood, my initial thought was that the engine seemed too hot. The dipstick was very hot and I could smell a faint 'burning' smell.
I didn't have any of those issues previously on my drive from FL to NC, however I did break down on the way up and the shop I made it to said they tightened the fan belt because it was 'too loose for his liking' (the points ended up breaking during my drive, which was the cause of my breakdown).
If the fan belt is a little on the tight end, couldn't that cause the fan to run poorly (especially if it is now slipping?)
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sgraham602
Samba Member
Joined: August 10, 2016
Posts: 140
Location: Chapel Hill, NC
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| Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2016 11:50 am Post subject: Re: Oil Pressure Light |
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[quote="aerosurfer"]
| sgraham602 wrote: |
How about some engine pics to see if we notice any other areas of concern |
Here's one. Two things I am aware of. A. Missing the cover of the adjustment screw on the alternator B. Missing the cooling flap assembly
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aerosurfer
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Joined: March 25, 2012
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Location: Indianapolis, IN
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| Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2016 12:05 pm Post subject: Re: Oil Pressure Light |
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And you need to cover the 2 warm air ducts from the missing overhead blower fan that go down to the heater boxes. Use some aluminum tape or other way to block those. Forget the little alternator bit, its peanuts to your other problems.
Your missing flaps assembly is likely the main reason for the poor oil perfomance and engine wear.
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Rebuild your own FI Harness..My Harness
77 Westy 2.0L Rockin and Rolling Resto!
72 Sportsmobile (sold)
79 Tran$porter... Parts car money machine (gone) |
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busdaddy
Samba Member
Joined: February 12, 2004
Posts: 51153
Location: Surrey B.C. Canada, but thinking of Ukraine
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| Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2016 12:10 pm Post subject: Re: Oil Pressure Light |
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Indeed, and that 20W50 tar likely isn't helping. A meat thermometer with a long probe will tell you what temps the oil is getting to, a full tune up won't hurt either.
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WhirledTraveller
Samba Member
Joined: January 09, 2008
Posts: 1399
Location: Cambridge, MA
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| Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2016 12:31 pm Post subject: Re: Oil Pressure Light |
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| sgraham602 wrote: |
To be honest, yesterday after driving around town and experiencing a flickering oil pressure light as I pulled into my neighborhood, my initial thought was that the engine seemed too hot. The dipstick was very hot and I could smell a faint 'burning' smell.
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The old-folks way of telling if the engine is too hot is whether you can grab the dipstick without burning yourself so you might be onto something.
The high-tech way is with the meat thermometer in the tube or an IR thermometer pointed the the bottom of the engine case.
Hopefully your mechanic timed it properly after replacing the points. You are missing the timing scale although the yellow painted markings look to be about the right ballpark.
And you need those flaps installed... even if they are just locked open... they divert some of the cooling air over the oil cooler. Without the flap, oil cooling is impaired.
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skills@eurocarsplus
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Location: sticksville, ct.
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| Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2016 1:24 pm Post subject: Re: Oil Pressure Light |
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Abscate
Samba Member
Joined: October 05, 2014
Posts: 22670
Location: NYC/Upstate/ROW
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| Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2016 1:34 pm Post subject: Re: Oil Pressure Light |
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Every single car I have ever owned has a sentence in the owners manual that occasional flickering of the oil light after hard driving is ok.
I must find a way to tap the paranoia of TS for profit.
On edit - skills beats me again... 
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WhirledTraveller
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Location: Cambridge, MA
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| Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2016 2:45 pm Post subject: Re: Oil Pressure Light |
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| Abscate wrote: |
Every single car I have ever owned has a sentence in the owners manual that occasional flickering of the oil light after hard driving is ok.
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How many cars have you driven that *actually* flickered the oil light after hard driving? The oil light on a VW Bus is spec'd at around 4-6 psi IIRC but I measured two and both came on around 2-3 psi. If my engine was making 2-3 psi at idle I would not be happy about it.
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busdaddy
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Location: Surrey B.C. Canada, but thinking of Ukraine
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| Posted: Mon Sep 26, 2016 3:41 pm Post subject: Re: Oil Pressure Light |
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I've had type 4's flicker after a long 65+ mph highway run on hot days, but that's with 10W30 and way more abuse than a leisurely little drive around town. Something's wrong with the OP's setup, hopefully it's just a combination of poor tune, no flaps and thick oil.
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