Oil Warning Light

[Pepperman]

Greetings all, not posted for a while,

Anyway, my Octavia VRS has developed yet another problem. It all started two weeks ago, started the car and went on my journey and the engine management light came on. Booked in to the garage and they said it was cambelt related. It was either slipping or the sensor was faulty so they cleared the error and said to book it in again the week after as they were busy. I booked it in again and they confirmed it was the cam position sensor and replaced it. Engine Management light not come back on since but on the day I collected it the oil light briefly flashed so I checked the level as soon as I got home. It was a little low so topped her up.

All good until today when the light flashed again and a buzzer sounded, pulled over checked oil and it was still within the markers. This then cleared so I continued my short journey and it sounded again and again. My question is to the more mechanically minded people is what is wrong? I dare not start the engine anymore and need it looking at ASAP but will it be ok to drive or best to get it recovered? Is this at all related to the cam sensor or purely a coincidence?

As much as I love the car its started to become a real money pit now.....

Any advice please?

[STSKODA]

sounds like dreaded low oil pressure - these engines are prone to it if oil changes have not been regularly done or low spec oil is used.

normally caused by oil pickup getting blocked with sludge

fix requires sump to come off and replace strainer (£12) - might as well change oil pump while you are at it (£30). Simple enough job for garage, couple of hours labour tops. Make sure they use gasket sealant when they refit sump.

[pauldazzle]

Yep, blocked oil pick up strainer.

[Pepperman]

Cheers guys can I drive the car to the garage? Does it cause damage to the engine?

[STSKODA]

i wouldn't want to drive it any distance if the light came on.

up to you if you want to take the risk - if engine doesn't sound right i definately wouldn't drive it

have a look at the oil too - it shouldn't be jet black and globby - if it is you definately have sludge problems

[Milkybadger]

Literally just had my car fixed with this problem today.

DO NOT DRIVE IT! as the tension on the chain is controlled by the oil pressure, and with this particular problem the chain can ping off and snap at any time, scrap your engine and cost you £3000+ if you HAVE to drive it then keep it below 2000rpm and well off the turbo. (i thrashed myn, unawares and got away with it, you might not be so lucky)

My car was the oil pickup strainer, this was clogged up to hell and is caused apparently by the turbo dirtying the oil and after around 80,000 miles it clogs the strainer.

We cleared an unbeleivable amount of sludge from my sump aswell.

I also had the same CAM positioning engine management fault come up, and i can only presume this was caused by there being no pressure on the chain.

[Rennie]

sounds like dreaded low oil pressure - these engines are prone to it if oil changes have not been regularly done or low spec oil is used.

normally caused by oil pickup getting blocked with sludge

fix requires sump to come off and replace strainer (£12) - might as well change oil pump while you are at it (£30). Simple enough job for garage, couple of hours labour tops. Make sure they use gasket sealant when they refit sump.

I got quoted £98 + VAT on a oil pump from TPS, Genuine VW parts.

[STSKODA]

I got quoted £98 + VAT on a oil pump from TPS, Genuine VW parts.

apologies, you are right, think i was mixing up with water pump,

£80 from ecp if you want an oe one - i'd fit genuine at that price

[Pepperman]

OK thanks everyone for all your help, car booked in for Wednesday....

Edited 29 October, 2010 by Pepperman

[Guest westallc]

it will be the pickup pipe

very easy job you can do it yourself

drain oil

remove sump 15x 5mm allen keys

remove strainer 2x 10 bolt

replace with new £14 from skoda

refit sump with new sealent £14 from skoda

refill with oil

job done

cost strainer £14

sump sealent £14

oil + filter £25

time about 1 hour

£53 job done

jake to skoda expect £££'s

[Milkybadger]

I payed from GFS on trade

Oil pump - £50 ish

Water pump - £24 plastic impellor or £16 Metal impellor

If you can grab yourself a trade card at halfords... the filter works out 99p instead of £7 and the oil if buying 5w 40 fully synthetic goes from £38 for a gallon down to £18, 10w 40 part sythetic foes from about £22 to £18

If your not in some way in the motor trade then i dont know lol :p

GFS couldnt supply the strainer or pickup and told me to source it from a local dealer, but i got a new MAF today for £53 trade which is totally irrelevant to this problem lol