TheSamba.com :: View topic - How to go to a single oil pressure sensor on 2.1 vans

Thu Oct 23, 2025 12:48 pm

..................There are a few reasons why you may want to simplify the oil light on a '86 and later van. You may have installed a different engine that has only one oil port, the circuit board inside the dash may be giving you trouble, or in this case the threads came out with the sensor while tracing down an oil light issue leaving me with only one port on a 2.1.
...................I determined the most reliable fix in this case was to tap the hole for a 1/4 taper pipe thread and plug the hole and then install the low warning sensor in the hole on the pulley end of the motor where the high oil pressure warning sensor would normally go.
....................To make the dash light work correctly with just the one sensor and as a benefit (in my opinion) to make the system more reliable you will need to remove the circuit board inside the speedometer and use a resistor to make a jumper between two of the prongs in the plug going to the circuit board. Your single oil sensor will use the Blue/Black wire at the engine bay, the yellow wire will not be used anymore.
.....................By doing this, the oil light will light up steady with key on/ engine off and there will be no more oil buzzer or flashing oil light. Very simple and reliable.

Fri Oct 24, 2025 12:11 am

Wouldn't grounding the yellow wire take care of it?

Fri Oct 24, 2025 1:12 am

The buzzer is nice to have, but without the dual sender, the buzzer will operate when at low rpm with hot oil, or upon start up when it is normal for low pressure to occur
the idiot light is not readily visible, hence the buzzer is a great safety feature.
of course adding a gage, mounted in drivers regular line of sight can mitigate this loss of the buzzer.
stripped threads may be repaired by cutting larger size thread then using a step down size adaptor, or installing a hose to a remote sender

A gage can be added by using a hose to a ganged adaptor for remote mount of both the gage sender and switch(s).

Fri Oct 24, 2025 5:26 am

Deja vu.....a gallery post from 2008.......

https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/album_page.php?pic_id=486175

Mark