Driving home from airport t'other night in the V6 80Q - nothing exciting except for a few deep puddles on the back roads. Then 300yds from home the oil light comes on !!!
It was on at idle speeds so that is a 0.3bar warning - strooth.
So I nurse it home - knowing full well there was no ugly noises and that i had plenty of oil. It was pouring with rain (still dunno why I moved back to the green soggy marshlands of Ireland but hey)...
Next morning I note the oil level is quite low so top things up - knowing there are a few sweaty gaskets that maybe are getting worse.
I top up the oil, start the car and the oil light is still ON - this is a bit nutty. No funny noises. I gently took a short drive to see if I could sense anything felt wrong - I hadn't got to end of the street and the light goes off, so I am thinking that a water splash has caused an electrical gremlin.
Oil light stayed off for the duration. Then the following day it comes on again so its winding me up now...
Out comes the multimeter. There are two oil pressure switches - same logic as on S2/RS2.
The low pressure one (F22) CLOSES when it raises an alarm for pressure below 0.3bar
The high pressure one (F1) goes OPEN when pressure falls below 2.5bar... This only raises a fault on minicheck/autocheck when engine speed above 2800rpm.
So sure enough when I disconnect F22 (forcing it open) the alarm goes away and F1 never cries foul - so I am fairly happy - except this is the time you wish you had auxiliary gauges to actually read pressure.
With the undertray off it became clear to see the source of my oil leak as it was right down at the oil pressuer switches - there was actually a tiny hole in the oil filter - which was making a bit of a mess to be honest - and cleary for some time...
It would seem the failure of this 0.3bar switch has alerted my attention to find this.
So fortunately the only oil filter I have on the shelf (from S2/RS2) is same part on the V6 and I do a swift oil change... Put in some of Halfords finest 10W/40 semisynth as that was only place open and jobs a good un.
The old oil didnt seem that bad when I drained - nice and free flowing - not horrendously black, but the car drives so much better on the new oil that it isn't funny. I have never felt such a difference in new oil before.
Anyway - will have to get a new F22 ordered up - I'll get the version oil pressure sender built in as well (as per S2) - this was fitted to cars with aux gauges. My AAH engine has the wiring preparation for the sender so it will be easy to get a pressure reading for a confidence boost.
Had a good 70mph shakedown today and all seems fine and dandy - still lovely and clean after I degunged the undersides and kelchered it shiny again.
I am in the notion to do a proper recondition job on that V6 engine - its going to be a ball ache to do in site with access to some things mighty constrained... But that is going to have to wait.
It was on at idle speeds so that is a 0.3bar warning - strooth.
So I nurse it home - knowing full well there was no ugly noises and that i had plenty of oil. It was pouring with rain (still dunno why I moved back to the green soggy marshlands of Ireland but hey)...
Next morning I note the oil level is quite low so top things up - knowing there are a few sweaty gaskets that maybe are getting worse.
I top up the oil, start the car and the oil light is still ON - this is a bit nutty. No funny noises. I gently took a short drive to see if I could sense anything felt wrong - I hadn't got to end of the street and the light goes off, so I am thinking that a water splash has caused an electrical gremlin.
Oil light stayed off for the duration. Then the following day it comes on again so its winding me up now...
Out comes the multimeter. There are two oil pressure switches - same logic as on S2/RS2.
The low pressure one (F22) CLOSES when it raises an alarm for pressure below 0.3bar
The high pressure one (F1) goes OPEN when pressure falls below 2.5bar... This only raises a fault on minicheck/autocheck when engine speed above 2800rpm.
So sure enough when I disconnect F22 (forcing it open) the alarm goes away and F1 never cries foul - so I am fairly happy - except this is the time you wish you had auxiliary gauges to actually read pressure.
With the undertray off it became clear to see the source of my oil leak as it was right down at the oil pressuer switches - there was actually a tiny hole in the oil filter - which was making a bit of a mess to be honest - and cleary for some time...
It would seem the failure of this 0.3bar switch has alerted my attention to find this.
So fortunately the only oil filter I have on the shelf (from S2/RS2) is same part on the V6 and I do a swift oil change... Put in some of Halfords finest 10W/40 semisynth as that was only place open and jobs a good un.
The old oil didnt seem that bad when I drained - nice and free flowing - not horrendously black, but the car drives so much better on the new oil that it isn't funny. I have never felt such a difference in new oil before.
Anyway - will have to get a new F22 ordered up - I'll get the version oil pressure sender built in as well (as per S2) - this was fitted to cars with aux gauges. My AAH engine has the wiring preparation for the sender so it will be easy to get a pressure reading for a confidence boost.
Had a good 70mph shakedown today and all seems fine and dandy - still lovely and clean after I degunged the undersides and kelchered it shiny again.
I am in the notion to do a proper recondition job on that V6 engine - its going to be a ball ache to do in site with access to some things mighty constrained... But that is going to have to wait.
Comment