What triggers Yellow Engine Oil Warning Light?

[bluckaneyr]

My Fabia 1.2 TSI is now 9 months old and has just under 11,000km on the clock. I have checked the oil with the dipstick occasionally and it seemed not to be going down that much, if any.

However, a few days ago when nearing home I noticed the yellow coloured oil warning light flick on and off a few times, so I drove on about 3 km to the nearby Skoda garage and there I added 1L of Gulf GVX 5w-30 fully synthetic engine oil, as recommended for the car. After adding the litre, the oil level is now a little over half way up the marked section of the dip-stick again. I'm due a service in 3 months and I'm going to monitor the oil level more regularly now, as I don't want to rely on warning lights!

Now perhaps someone could tell me what actually triggers the flicker of the yellow warning light in the Fabia, does the sensor pick up a drop in the actual level (height) of the oil in the system or is it picking up a drop in the pressure (which I presume is much more serious).

Also, is there a "red" version of the warning light also?

[Reavenger]

Also, is there a "red" version of the warning light also?

From the manual:

– Bring the vehicle to a stop.

– Switch the engine off.

– Investigate the function indicated.

– Obtain professional assistance

*Pray you've done no damage to the engine*

Last part is optional....

As for the yellow light, I believe it is just the level of the oil. As I've had it come on twice when my vRS had ran low on oil. I'm not 100% though.

[shark_90]

Yellow light is oil level low, red light is an oil pressure problem and the engine should be stopped immediately.

[bluckaneyr]

Yellow light is oil level low, red light is an oil pressure problem and the engine should be stopped immediately.

Thanks for your answers. The flickering light I got was the yellow one, following which I added the extra Litre of oil.

Obviously the red warning light must be triggered by a drop in oil pressure, not good news if that happens.

But do you know what actually triggers the more common yellow light? If it's not related to oil pressure, there must surely be a wired sensor somewhere in the system that picks up a drop in the level of oil. Do you know where that sensor is?

[seboni121]

There would be a switch that gets triggered within the engine, an electrical charge / contact would be made when oil level dips below this contact point