'89 100 oil pressure warning. Electrical wierdness or big problem?

[Eric_R_Kissell at whirlpool.com]

I have a similar problem on two of my cars.

Suddenly one gives the oil warning and the brake warning while the other
gives the brake warning and the low washer fluid warning.

The brakes check out fine on both cars. The bomb checks OK and ABS works,
etc.

The washer fluid is full on that car. I need to check the level sensor, but
I suspect it is OK.

I changed the oil and filter and replaced the oil pressure sensor without
any improvement on the car giving the oil can warning. Oil pressure looks
fine on the oil pressure gauge. Mine seems to come on at certain rpms. If I
keep the rpms low the warning does not appear. This scares me because that
would seem to indicate an actual oil pressure problem. However, all other
indicators suggest that the oil pressure is fine and it is an erroneous
warning.

I suspect the problem is one of the following:

   instrument cluster (there is a ground path that cracks)
   dirty connections at the instrument cluster.
   the wiring from the sensors (crack in loom?)

I will let you know if I fix this. It is not a top priority right now.

It does not appear to be an actual oil pressure problem and oil viscosity
seems to make no difference.

Eric



|---------+--------------------------------------------------------->
|         |           SuffolkD at aol.com                              |
|         |           Sent by:                                      |
|         |           quattro-bounces+eric_r_kissell=whirlpool.com at a|
|         |           udifans.com                                   |
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|         |                                                         |
|         |           07/08/2004 02:14 PM                           |
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  |                                                                                               |
  |       To:       quattro at audifans.com, tom at freeskier.com                                       |
  |       cc:                                                                                     |
  |       Subject:  Re: '89 100 oil pressure warning. Electrical wierdness or big     problem?    |
  >-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|




Tom:  We may need more info.
Oil level low?

While the heads up display may be a sensor gone bad. There are two AFAIK:
 The VDO pressure gauge is usually pretty accurate.
I had a 20V 3B "rebuilt" LOL, and the "parts guy" put thin weight oil in
which is good to get all around the motor.........but it would be 1bar at
idle and
3bar tops at 3000 RPM.
I switched out the oil to thicker 10/40W and the gauge is 2.5 (idle) - 5bar

at 3000 RPM.

What is the oil viscosity..........generally older motors have large
tolerances where thicker oil does better.

I think its Bernie who generalizes: higher pressure doesn't mean higher
flow.................
as I interpret him
HTH - Scott by BOSTON

The victim is a 1989 100Q sedan with approximately 160k. This just started
happening, and it's very erratic. The oil pressure light on the computer in
the dash will issue a warning, and then go off while driving.

The car will idle, totally warmed up with the temp needle in the middle of
the gauge at just under 2 bar. The oil temp seems normal, although the
gauge
registered just under the middle after 1 hour of driving (some highway,
some
stop and go) in 90 degree weather when the warning light issue first
manifested itself.
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