[Vwdiesel] Oil Pressure idiot light & buzzer

[Bryan K. Walton]

I don't know what year your daughter's Golf is.  If you don't have a
Bentley Manual for the car, I'd highly recommend getting one as it
will detail the oil pressure warning system for the car.  I believe
the wiring is a little different for the A2 Golfs than for my '84 
Rabbit, but I believe its fairly similar.  For the '84 Rabbit:

You have two senders, one on the filter and one on the head.  The one
on the head is designed to show low pressure at idle.  It isn't
tied into the buzzer.  I believe pressure, at idle, needs to be lower
than 6.4 psi for the warning light to show up on the dash.

The sender on the oil filter bracket is designed to send current to the
oil pressure relay whenever the the pressure is below 29psi.  The oil
pressure relay also collects information regarding engine RPMs.  If
the relay believes the car is operating over 2000 RPMs AND is getting
information from the sender on the bracket that pressure is BELOW
29psi, then the relay's job is to light up the warning light on the
dash AND to sound the buzzer alarm.

Now, your car could be different than my Rabbit.  But in my opinion,
you need to first find out the actual oil pressure.  The system could
be working correctly but until you check the pressure you won't know. 
Get an oil pressure gauge with at least 6 feet of tubing.  Unscrew the
sender at the head (where pressure will be lowest) and screw in the
oil pressure gauge.  Feed the gauge through the upper corner of
the hood and through your driver side window.  Take the car on a long
drive (at least 1/2 hour, I'd say) to get the oil fully warmed up. 
Monitor the pressure at various speeds, but pay close attention to the
pressure at 2000 RPMs.

Only after you have confirmed that your pressure is really adequate,
can you then correctly assume that you have a problem with either the
oil pressure relay or with one of the senders.

-Bryan
 

> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Pam & Doug Boes" <db53248 at alltel.net>
> To: <vwdiesel at vwfans.com>
> Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2007 5:59 PM
> Subject: [Vwdiesel] Oil Pressure idiot light & buzzer
> 
> 
> > My daughter's Golf diesel started showing the oil pressure idiot light and
> > warning buzzer yesterday. When the engine is cold, the light doesn't come
> > on. After driving for awhile the light starts flickering and the buzzer 
> > goes
> > off. I had her top off the oil and drive it home. It doesn't smell hot 
> > like
> > there is no oil circulation and the water temp gage shows normal.
> >
> >
> >
> > Do the sender units on the N/A engines degrade before failing completely?
> > I've asked a couple of gearheads and they all say to get a gage and 
> > connect
> > it to the sender ports to see what the pressure actually is. How likely 
> > are
> > worn bearings, etc that would be too sloppy to maintain oil pressure after
> > the engine is warmed up? There doesn't seem to be any corresponding 
> > drop-off
> > in performance when the light comes on. I'm planning to get a gage & check
> > the actual pressures at each port and change both sender units to see if
> > that cures the problem.
> >
> >
> >
> > Any other suggestions?
> >
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> 
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