Hello people, I joined here a couple of years ago when I bought my Octavia and have had no real need to log in because it and my sons Fabia have been wonderful trouble free motoring - until now.

 

He had his 2006 1.2 Petrol Fabia MOT'd at a decent reputable (non dealer) garage last Thursday/Friday and picked the car up Friday night after work. He drove it a little over the weekend but this morning he went to start it for work and it's a no go. He tells me the yellow oil warning light is flashing but the dip stick shows oil is adequate. I did not have time to investigate it myself, so just dropped him off at work and will look into it tonight. I have previously bought a plug in tester from 'tinternet' for about £20 but had no cause to use it until now.

 

So before I get home and roll my sleeves up, is there anything I should be looking for? Should I have the Garage confirm it's not down to them (I don't know what they attended to for the MOT).

 

Thank you for taking the time to read and or reply.

 

 

 

In the manual, it says that a flashing yellow oil warning light is a faulty sensor.

Thank you for your reply.

 

Having had time to look into the situation, it turns out idiot son was parked half on the kerb (Near side high) with the fuel light on. A splash of the unleaded and a bash round the ear, car starts after sucking the juice through. I will check the oil sensor this evening.

 

Is it too late to put him up for adoption?

Never drive with the fuel light on further than the closest petrol station...you might have to replace the fuel pump after this. It's simply overheating. Not to mention the catalyst which is pretty badly affected when the engine is starving. I've had at least 2 friends which had this problem and my dad as well, on three different cars/car makers. I'm learning from the mistakes made by others.  If you don't have enough money on you to refill, it's better to park it somewhere and take a walk. Time spent through servicing the car and having to use the public transportation or depending on others cars is irreplaceable.

I think that the oil warning was coming on because the car did not fire up after cranking it for so many minutes, it is just the way that VAG covers a low oil pressure situation, ie it allows so much time to pass from cranking the engine until oil pressure switch changes state, now when an engine just does not start but has enough battery power to continue to turn over, that time period gets passed, so the oil warning gets issued.

That makes perfect sense!

Never drive with the fuel light on further than the closest petrol station...you might have to replace the fuel pump after this. It's simply overheating. Not to mention the catalyst which is pretty badly affected when the engine is starving. I've had at least 2 friends which had this problem and my dad as well, on three different cars/car makers. I'm learning from the mistakes made by others.  If you don't have enough money on you to refill, it's better to park it somewhere and take a walk. Time spent through servicing the car and having to use the public transportation or depending on others cars is irreplaceable.

 

Can you explain this. I have always driven reasonable distances with the fuel warning light on. I.E. with my VRS it'll tell me I have 50 miles range when the light comes on, and I'll usually drive up to 40 before filling up. Did the same in my Fiesta just with a bit more guesswork. Never had to replace a fuel pump. Are you sure your friends weren't trying to run with absolutely no fuel in the tank so nothing going through the pump?

 

Matt

Can you explain this. I have always driven reasonable distances with the fuel warning light on. I.E. with my VRS it'll tell me I have 50 miles range when the light comes on, and I'll usually drive up to 40 before filling up. Did the same in my Fiesta just with a bit more guesswork. Never had to replace a fuel pump. Are you sure your friends weren't trying to run with absolutely no fuel in the tank so nothing going through the pump?

 

Matt

I also drive significant distances with the low fuel warning lit and have never had to change a fuel pump. If the engine were to start coughing from lack of fuel then I could put some credence to Alexandru's "fuel light" comments, but otherwise....

I think that at least for petrol cars, the fuel pump can never get into a situation where it is pulling air through itself, remember that some of these pumps, Bosch for instance, run the fuel through the motor probably to solve overheating problems, now if the fuel runs out and gets combined with air and petrol vapour, you would have a problem, a very big problem - BANGGGGGG! To my eyes, this way of working seems a bit strange, but it does work, or used to work that way, I would have thought the safest way to design a fuel pump would have been to keep the fuel and electric/motor separated?

To my eyes, this way of working seems a bit strange, but it does work, or used to work that way, I would have thought the safest way to design a fuel pump would have been to keep the fuel and electric/motor separated?

 

I remember reading about this. The vapour inside a car fuel tank is far too heavy to explode. There is not enough oxygen to create an appropriate mixture. If you think of the way a fuel gauge sender unit works, it has a live feed going to it and the potentiometer track is often immersed in and out of petrol depending on fuel level, but they've been using that method for years as it's perfectly safe.

Yes at work we had a felicia that would cut out after roundabouts.. then restart afterwards no problem.

When we took the pump out of the tank the +TV spade had worked loose off the terminal and had been happily arcing away burning the terminal inside the tank..

wish I'd got a pic at the time as it had burnt quite a chunk away.

no oxygen no fire I guess.

The fuel pumps are totally open to the fuel inside the tank and usually do return a bit thru the pump motor to cool it but unless yiur running it dry every other tank full I can't see why it's going to burn the pump out.. as no fuel to pump = no load on the motor.