Oil pressure

About to install Vdo oil pressure gauge and wondered what Normal oil pressure readings should be?

idle at 5bar when cold, 1bar ish when warm. should raisde to around 2bar when you rev it warm. readings can differ slightly at the head from the filter housing

Thanks for that.  I have a 10 bar gauge with the sender going onto the head as it is a 0.5 bar warning light job.
It will hardly look like it's registering?? Is this right?

yeah 10bar is a bit much really for a vw engine, what does the gauge start at 1bar?

Yeah it's a 10 bar gauge starting at zero.   I was lead to believe that the 5 bar gauges were Audi and the 10 bar ones were vw from what I'd read in various places.
Hmmm, my a I should look around for a 5 bar one?

http://www.clubgti.com/forum/archive/index.php?t-121212.html

Stick with the 0-10 bar one, the reason being you'd want to know if it goes OVER pressure just as much as if oil pressure was too low. When cold, sometimes I've seen mine at 5.5-6 bar. So with a 5 bar gauge, you'd never know if you had a fault.

Great, thanks.
So, does your run at 1 bar when warm too?

No but it depends where the sender is.

If the senders on the head?

id go with 0-5bar gives a more useful range, if its over pressure you would know as soon as engine starts to warm if pressure wont go below 5bar. plus oil spewing out your engine all over the place
vw specifiy both 5 and 10bar gauges for the mk1 if you care that much for originality

if the sender is in the head the pressure readings are a little lower than at the filter housing, the minimum pressure spec at the head is 0.3bar which would be hard to read on a 1-10bar gauge. theres no reason why you cant put the pressure sender in the filter housing and swap it for the mfa oil temp sender. that'll be just like a mk2 16v sender arrangement. just a case of extend your wiring to reach.

I have the same problem with my audi oil temp gauge its 0-180degrees so it hardly comes off the stop! operating temp is something like 4mm away from 0.

Thanks for that.  
Just out of interest, I found this useful article which explains not only the fitting of the dials but also what the oil pressure gauge should read.

no worries, as i say if you put the sender in the filter housing that should give the best possible pressures for your 10bar gauge, while its warming up you'll get a nice high figure and when warm it should sit between 0 and 2, theres a marking there for 1bar anyway if its the same gauge as per the linky above.

proper mk1 vdos look different though they have needles that look the same as the mk1 clocks in case you were wondering

edit: like this, though iirc the needles are white?
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/VW-Golf-MK1-MK2-GTI-Porsche-VDO-Water-OilTemperature-Gauge-Celsius-Very-Rare-/320854742946

Thanks, here are mine.  Not sure which one sto put in but think it will be the oil temp, pressure and volts…

yeah those are audi or porsche I think, but who cares still look good in a mk1!

They're from an 80s Porsche.  Can't wait to fit them.

So, I have decided to have a crack with the sender on the oil housing.  As the warning part of the sender is 0.5bar this will mean the oil warning lamp will light up at 0.5bar rather than 1.8 bar on the original, right?

keep the 1.8bar switch as it is, it works in the opposite way to the 0.3 bar switch so it wont work properly.

take the mfa oil sender out of the filter housing and put your vdo pressure sender there. extend the wire from the side of the head to the filter housing, and put your mfa sender in the side of the head

Brilliant! Thanks so much for all your help

no problem! good luck its great when they gauges come to life for the first time