Hi

My cars always been serviced well (FSH and me and previous owner are a bit car obsessed!) - it was last serviced about 3 months ago or about 3

 

last week I had the red oil light flash at me when I first started the car - went out after a few seconds though and I put it down to being very cold

 

Same happened again and I quickly stopped and checked oil level - which was fine (its used none in the last 3 months)

It alarmed and flashed 4 times for roughly 30seconds on a 60 mile journey today and I pulled over to check the oil 3 times out of paranoia!

 

 

Iv been researching all night and have found a few things that I want to run by you and get your opinion!

Obviously the red oil can light is pressure, so even if the level is correct I could still be causing damage.

 

Off this forum iv read a fair bit about pickup pipes - but they are generally on the 1.8t octavias and iv not seen much mentioned about the fabia vrs.

Off a vw transporter and seat cupra forum iv read about a wire by the alternator lacking continuity which causes a fault - but this isn't mentioned at all on the fabias and also apparently goes hand in hand with the rev gauge - which is fine on mine.

Finally theres the pressure sensor which is a basic one!

 

 

Not just after answers, if anyone has anything that'd help let me know

 

 

Thanks all!

I don't have a vrs, mine's a petrol engine, 1.4 8v, but I had about the same problem as yours.

On short, the warning light with that annoying sound alert came when I was caught in heave traffic. After I've got it home (trying not to rev it too much), I had more time to investigate it, so, when at idle, everything was pretty fine, no warnings. Without moving the car, when going over 1800rpms, the warnings were present, I think it was ringing 3 times and then going off. The red light in the dash was there. Those 2 were going off when going at idle speed again (all of these without the car moving). The explanation is pretty simple, as in my short research, the oil pressure switch goes on after 1800rpms and allows more than 0.8 bars to get into the engine. Since there was a wiring problem and the switch (it can be read as sensor also) wasn't working, which in my case was caused by a faulty wire, the warnings were coming on.

IMO, the best way to check this thing is by measuring the oil pressure when starting, idle and over 2000rpm with an oil pressure meter mounted in the oil pressure switch's place.

 

Later edit: I got my car to towed a local service. If, for some reasons, the engine doesn't have enough oil pressure, the camshaft might be seriously damaged (and in your case, the turbo charger). It's better to be safe than sorry. That oil pressure sensor doesn't tell you only if your running out of oil ! You might have an ok oil level, but no pressure at all.

 

About diesel VW engines, I noticed that most of the times, the oil pump strainer gets dirty, it's in the lower side of the oil sump and causes a low oil pressure at the top of the engine. After checking the oil pressure, you can go investigate for a faulty wire or sensor.

Edited 12 October, 201411 yr by Alexandru

it might just be the oil pressure sensor, but I would try and avoid driving the car until thats confirmed.

Thanks for the replies guys!

 

I was very sure it was the pressure sensor as said - so today I went out to test it. I don't have a pressure tester at the moment but I went to see when it came on.

I went to have a visual look at the sensor/switch first and it was very oily suggesting that its leaking a bit. And sure enough, when I started it it came on just before 2k and goes off again when the revs drop down  

 

So with regard to the oil im happy that it is a sensor fault - but now the coolant warning light has came on!! ..now there looks to be another sensor right next to the dirty oil sensor, could that be the coolant and that has got dirty too?

 

cheers

if its the orange one, then thats the coolant level sensor which is in the header tank. That sensor causing issues is very common, the fix is to take the lid off the expansion tank and use a screwdriver to clean the gunk from between both prongs of the sensor. The sensor is plastic welded into the tank, so to replace means replacing the whole expansion tank.

It was the red coolant light - which has gone now!

 

I went to take the oil pressure sensor off and the wire from it is snapped after about 2 inches!

iv taken a load of the loom apart and still cant find where the other end is though - does anyone know where it goes to so I can put a new one straight to it?

 

cheers