Hello,

I've recently had problems with the Engine Oil Pressure sensor coming on in my fabia 2000 1.4 mpi . It's been happening for the last 3 days now and usually doesn't start beeping until I have travelled 12 miles+. I've checked my oil levels and it is fine. It's been less than 2 months since I had my head gasket replaced along with a new thermostat, coolant tank and charging belt. My fear is that the head gasket has gone again. There was a slight amount of frothy light brown gunge on my oil cap when I first checked it but it has not reappeared afer a 50 mile trip. It looks like my coolant tank is possibly polluted now too. My engine has not overheated though so I don't know what the problem is.

Your help wolud be appreciated.

Thanks,

Paul

Do you know if the oil pressure is OK? The light might be coming on because the oil pressure is actually too low and not a dodgy sensor. The gunge around the oil cap isn't too much to worry about, did the oil light come on shortly after the gasket change? I am wondering if any muck has entered an oil gallery.

Switch failure is pretty common in the mpi, however if your header tank is polluted again head gasket could be leaky, did they use the modified temac gasket?

Sorry, I don't know what gasket they used. I have since taken the car in to have the sensor looked at. It was incredibly hot and the sensor was clogged with oil. Whe it was replaced the oil light no longer appeared. Hoping everything was okay, I continued to drive the car. I cleaned the oil cap but the gunge reappeared. I also started losing coolant very quickly and, on occassions, white smoke would appear from the exhaust on a cold startup. 2 days ago the car would barely start. The engine didn't attempt to initialize. After 4 attemtps it did start but again a lot of whte smoke initally appeared on startup. I took the car back in this morning to have the gasket rechecked. Everything is fine there but it looks like it could be the pistons.With the car being 9 years old I don't think it is worth stripping the engine down to fix this. My best bet may be to get a new engine put in.......though that won't be cheap either. I'm suprised how this could happen. I only have 57,000 miles on the clock.

Mostly short trips? If so, did you have the car serviced on time rather than mileage?

It's not white smoke - it's steam. Suggests gasket problems. No way that anything wrong with the pistons could cause you to lose coolant, have oil in the coolant or have steam in the exhaust. You may need the head skimming. Worth contacting a specialist head company. Best of luck.

Yes, it tends to be short trpis on the motorway. It's only a 20 mile round trip to work everyday. My last full service was 2 years ago but I did have th head gasket replaced in september - oil change etc.I agree that it does sound like gasket problems all over again but the garage are adament that their work is fine. Funny you mention about the head being skimmed. They said that was not required last time. I'm getting the car back tomorrow so it will be interesting to see if I continue to lose coolant. The car does sound like a tractor these days though.Thanks for your replies.

20 miles isn't that short; time enough to get the engine fully hot and deal with condensation issues, so I think we have to look deeper.

The method of checking for a distorted head involves using either a stiff straight edge between both opposite corners, or sitting it on a flat plane (often a sheet of glass on a workbench) and seeing if it will "rock".