Oil Pressure Light

[GQAndrew]

Hi Guys,

encountered a problem today on my TD4.2. Was driving for about 5 minutes, then realised the Oil Warning Light was on. Had a look at the pressure gauge, all OK, went home, then later checked the oil level on dipstick, fine! Is it safe to assume that the pressure sender is faulty, because I believe it has 2 functions,
1) to operate the pressue gauge,
2) A seperate function to switch the warning light on and off.

I know that these senders do have problems, as I have seen the pressure drop intermittently before, but could this be responsible for turning on the warning light, but still report good pressure.
At idle, the light is on, but the gauge reads about 1/4.

Anyway, is there anything I can do to test what is going on, and also, should the pressure sender just screw out, because I had problems doing it!

Also, I know you are supposed to check the oil level when warm, but how long after driving should you wait to check it. I find that after about 5 minutes the dipstick reads 1/4, after 10 minutes about half, then after checking about an hour later is on max. Should it read max earlier??

Thanks for any info on helping me figure this out

Cheers

Andrew

[ozy1]

after you turn your engine off, it will take a little bit of time, not sure how long, for the oil to drain back into the sump, when was your last oil change? i believe if it has been a while, your oil could be full of shit causing shitty pressures, and the sensor not sensing properly,

just a though, wait and see what others say

[matthewK]

id change oil filter and oil then see how it gose

if still have the same prob do the sender

i donno to much about diesel motors at all

but most car read max before starting if you check it straight after
oils all up the stick from turning around the motor

[GQAndrew]

id change oil filter and oil then see how it gose

if still have the same prob do the sender

oil is only 3000ks old, but I used a 20W-60 Penrite HPR Diesel, I believe that this may be too high a grade for winter. Will change the oil tomorrow to a lower grade tomorrow, as I wanted to do it anyway.

The thing that has got me confused is that while the light is on, the pressure gauge reads about normal, not low.

The other thing I forgot to mention is that I went through some water, probably wheel deep the other day, and it splashed into the engine bay, maybe this has affected the electrics on the sensor??

[ozy1]

water shouldnt have affected the sensor, i drove through some water that washed up against the bottom of my windscreen in low first, the other week, and hasnt affected any eletrics in my TD42

[matthewK]

might be more of a fault with the light then the pressure gauge

but if you think it could be the wrong grade for the season change it and see
if not then its the light or pressure

[robbie]

but if you think it could be the wrong grade for the season change it and see if not then its the light or pressure

what is a good grade for winter?

[bazzle]

The oil guage and light are in the same sender. They F**k up a lot.
Water DOES get in and corrodes the contacts etc.

Later replacemnet ones have a rubber drain/breather tube to try to keep them dry.

Replace sender and fault will go away.
Only use 15/40 for diesels summer and winter.

Bazzle