Hi, I'm new to this site, I hope someone can advise...

 

I bought a Fabia Classic 1.2 in June for my daughter & there have been a few problems with the oil pressure light coming on (& warning beep). So far, the selling garage have replaced the oil pump & oil pressure sensor, but I am not convinced the problem has been fixed. 

 

A separate garage (recommended to us) carried out an oil pressure check & advised that the oil pressure at idle was very low, i.e. 0.5 bar instead of 2 bar, which in their view indicated internal damage (to the engine), & they recommended that we spend no further money on it.

 

I asked for my money back (from the first garage) but instead they have carried out further checks on the car, & advise that pressure checks on the coolant were OK (15 PSI), compression tests were ok @ 13.5 on each of the cylinders, head gaskets passed a pressure test & oil pressure was 0.2 bar at idle & 0.8 bar at fast idle. When I queried this latter test & said these readings were too low, they said they would obtain further advise & let me know. Ideally, I want to follow the advice of the recommended garage, & get my money back!

 

What does the forum advise?

 

 

 

 

 

Presumably a fresh oil filter has been tried? It would be odd to change pump and switch but not that.

 

There are a couple of small O-rings however, at the bottom end of the oil filter assembly, items 16 & 17 on this page that may be worth replacing, for very little cash.  I seem to remember reading about someone who found pressure improvement after renewing one or both of those.  Sketchy on the details or theory I'm afraid.

 

0.5 bar at idle doesn't sound bad to me, I'm sure on my Golf the pressure switch in the head is only rated at 0.25 bar? It's got the right oil in it too, I presume? Edit, your Fabia switch seems to be rated 0.3-0.6 Bar and I seem to remember that the switch isn't monitored below 1500rpm, so that does suggest things are rather low, if that's getting triggered.

How many miles has the car/engine done?

Thank you Freedom for your help. The selling garage had the Fabia serviced & MoT'd when we bought it in June, & the service included a new oil filter. The Fabia is a 2005 model & has only done 66500 miles. I suppose the critical question is, is an oil pressure level of 0.5 bar at idle indicative of serious internal wear & tear on the engine or not? 

If the oil pressure is really low you would hear the timing chain start to rattle and almost sound like a Diesel engine.

The bearing shells are not holding their oil, the engine has been run out of oil by a previous owner and needs new main and big end shells and possibly even a new top end since the cams run directly in the head.

 

The engine is no good and you should demand a refund without further ado, it will fail completely, those pressure readings are much too low, anything else is smoke and mirrors, GET RID!

Testing info here which includes a minimum specification for 2 bar at 2000rpm, which your car appears to be failing to achieve.(near the bottom of page).

Print that out and use it for leverage.

Thank you very much for the useful posts above, which are just what I wanted. Very impressed with this forum! I will use this information to ask for my money back. 

Thanks again!