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Oil Pressue Light "STOP" Engine. 2001 1.8T

2K views 12 replies 8 participants last post by  Steve in Chicago 
#1 ·
2001 VW Passat 1.8T.

Two times in the last year I had to my oil pan removed and pickup tube cleaned along with running some VW product thru the engine to clean sludge. The 1st time my turbo blew out. The second time was after my timing belt broke @ 65mph on highway. Head was removed sent to machine shop, valves replaced. Ran great, on test drive pressure light came on. Same process as above but my oil pressure switch was replaced as a precaution, that was 2 weeks ago. The light still comes on but seems to be fine over 2000 rpm. Any help out there. I'm desperate and pissed.

Tony
 
#4 ·
If the light comes ON at 1500 RPMs and goes out if you rev the engine more, the oil pump sump (strainer) is not clogged. You just don't have enough oil pressure. This could be due to a bad oil pump or simply because of wear.
If I were to take a guess, based on what you described, you have too much wear on all oil pressure bearings due to previous problems.
 
#11 ·
thanks for the info, my car does just about the same thing, the oil light will come on for a second or two and then turn off ( only on hot summer days ) when driving normally its fine, but in traffic it seems to go off more.

Note that my car just hit 375,000 miles on it, so I'm just glad is an expected issue and not something going crazy with my car. I'm planning on replacing the car this fall/winter anyway, so I'm not too worried about it. The $ to fix it is better off just being saved for a new car. ( I know my car leaks oil and last winter simialr to the OP I had to have the whole head worked on after a headgasket failure. So i'm glad its an expected issue with as much wear on my motor as there is )
 
#12 ·
After 2 long business trips I finally got around to getting my oil pressure checked. All tests came back normal at low rpm and higher rpm. I don't have the numbers but my mechanic is a friend of mine. He is as bewildered as I am. Any addt'l info out there?
 
#13 ·
The switch comes on at around 7 to 10 psi below 2000RPM and below 27 psi over 2000rpm .
The above is incorrect. The oil pressure sensor is a simple pressure activated switch and only has one tripping pressure. That switch is either open or closed.

That sensor reports to the cluster and the cluster has a set of rules/logic it uses to determine when to activate an oil pressure warning. The RPM discrimination is closer to 1500.

If you're having oil pressure worries, the built in warning system is almost useless. It'll tell you when it's too late.
Install a permanent oil pressure gauge and go by what that tells you. A temporary gauge hookup in a garage doesn't tell you as much as a permanent gauge installation. A test like that is more likely to give you a false-positive result then the truth. Oil pressure changes with oil temperature. Even if you idle the car in the garage for an hour, the oil will still not be as hot as it would be if you were sitting in traffic on a hot day with the AC running. A permanent gauge will give you that reading. These 1.8t engine really work the oil hard. Constant load like on the highway will get the oil really hot.

I have an oil pressure gauge on my car. The readings I see after warm up (even with a several mile drive included) are not the same as the readings I see after the engine has been worked for a while.
 
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