Oil warning light

:dontknow: Hi all, I've just bought an '83 GTi, it's mint and i love it but having a few teething probs. The most concerning of which is the constant flashing of the oil warning light. I've replaced the oil temp sender and it's still flashing. I'm about to change the oil pressure switch too but wondered if any of you had any ideas if this doesn't work. (obviously it's topped up with lovely oil and running sweet as a nut).

Thanks!

GTim.

I would have guessed switches so maybe you're on right track? Dont know if there's scope for a dodgy earth to be the problem or not?

welcome to club by the way and feel free to post some pics up of your new toy!!

The flashing oil light sometimes with the buzzer is endemic in 1980s VWs. 99% are due to duff instrument cluster giving a false alarm BUT you need to make sure its not really low oil pressure. You need to get a VDO gauge wired up or get a garage to test.

There was some threads about replacing the ?L?(???) circuit board to fix the problem but can?t remember exact details.

Thanks guys! Nice welcome to the club etc. How do i put some pics of my wheels on this site? I managed to put a small one in my profile but can't find the gallery section.

I've now replaced the 2 oil pressure switches (cylinder head and filter mounted) and also the oil temp. sender. The light stopped flashing for about 7 miles and then returned! Do you think it might just be dodgy connectors (they looked a bit shabby)? Also - theres an earth connector on the distributor cap that has nothing connected to it - could this be the problem too?

Sorry for all the questions, but the flashing light is driving me crazy.

Thanks!

I'd still get the oil pressure measured and then when you are sure its OK you can start looking for electrical problems.

There should be an earth on the cam cover.

Think i'll get myself a haynes manual and then book it in for a check up too!

Forgot to mention that theres a 1.9 TSR under the hood - shouldn't make any difference tho (should it?).

Early-1800 said

The flashing oil light sometimes with the buzzer is endemic in 1980s VWs. 99% are due to duff instrument cluster giving a false alarm BUT you need to make sure its not really low oil pressure. You need to get a VDO gauge wired up or get a garage to test.

There was some threads about replacing the ?L?(???) circuit board to fix the problem but can?t remember exact details.

The "L"-shaped circuit board inside the instrument cluster is the oil pressure control circuit - as mentioned, they frequently go wrong as they get older, causing false alarms.

In the end, I removed mine from the cluster altogether, which meant no oil light at all, but I did have a VDO gauge in the centre console. This isn't ideal, but was better than having the buzzer going off all the time I was driving    (couldn't wait to use that emoticon!).

PS: I changed my cluster for a km/h one afterwards (Ireland recently changed to km/h speed limits) with a different circuit board, and the oil light works again, with no false alarms!

Mine sometimes goes off when the car has been sat in baking hot sun (light not buzzer) and a rap on the cluster with knuckles makes it go away. VDO gauge in central console shows good pressure so I'm 99.9% certain I've got a duff 'L' board.

Wow - how many Golfs!

Thanks to you guys i've got a good list of potential cures to go through now. Hope one of them works! Got my MOT at 3pm - pretty nervous actually.

Keeps your fingers crossed.  

Well….it failed  :cry:

But only on 3 minor things - so well pleased!

1 of them is a CV gaitor - anybody know of a solution that doesn't mean dismantling half the car? Like a sealable gaitor or something?

Thanks again!

You can get 'split, fit 'n' glue' boots, but I've tried them before and they're more trouble than they're worth in my opinion. I'd spend the time and do them properly.

Taking the driveshafts off is really easy on a golf, only neededing 30mm (I think) socket for driveshaft nut, and the correct sized splined (not torx!) bit to un-do the inner CV joints from the gearbox. You can then remove one of the CV joints from the shaft, and change the boots! Took me 2 hours to get both shafts off, change the CV boots and have it all back together. No need to take suspention apart or anything!!   

Mike

We have 2 mk1 golfs in the family, my 83 GTI and my dads 1300 Driver.

Both of them suffer this problem (oil pressure buzzer going off). I've got a couple of VDO instrument clusters. 1 with MFA and 1 without. It seems the L' shaped board is exactly the same in both sets of clocks. Both of the L' shaped boards have a quad dual input Nor IC, various resistors, diodes, what seems to be a normally closed relay and of course a buzzer. I am trying to make a wiring diagram of the board, in order to sort things out.

If you've tested the oil pressure and replaced the oil pressure switches, try grabbing a set of VDO clocks and replacing the board. Opening the clocks to change the boards is not so bad as you can leave the blue PCB in place with the exception of the the connector on the back of the rev counter (I think). both of my clocks have a rev counter in which the L'shaped board is mounted. Be carful handling the Blue PCB the pins can rip out really easy.

regards
scotty

Interesting that the non-MFA clocks with a rev counter (which came in CL, GL, and GLS models) also have the oil buzzer, because in my experience of Mk1's, only the GTI's (cars with an MFA) have issues with false alarms on the oil buzzer circuit, so much so that I didn't realise that the lesser models even had a buzzer!

Does anyone have any experiences with CL, GL, or GLS models with oil-buzzer faults, or do we think that there might be some connection with the presence of an MFA and/or GTI engine?

Hi

I used to have an 82 GX wich had an oil buzzer fault and would not stop going off. In the end we disconected it and it stopped. So It cant be a gti or MFA thing as mine has neither.

My'Old Faithful' '81 1.5 GLS had the buzzer, luckily it was just te pressure sender on the end of the engine block was kaput………scared the hell out of me when it went offwhile hurtling down an autobahn………

Just a quick update.

The L shaped circuit is behind the speedometer. Still this is easy to get at as I described earlier.

My dads 1300 Driver (83 A reg) has a rev counter, unfortunatly this has a buzzer as well. Although not as anoying as mine (his sounds like its on its last legs).

The set of clocks I got the spare L shaped circuit out of are VDO instrument panel manufactuered date 1983. I dont know what the engine size or model of the car was but the clocks have a rev counter and a digital display for the time only. There is a water temp gauge where the MPG needle/change LED is and on the rev counter there is only the petrol gauge. The spare clocks are the same as those in the driver.

I have currently disconnected the oil pressure switch on the cylinder head to stop the buzzer. Looking at the haynes it appears the given oil pressure should be approx 2 bar at 2000rpm. is this the oil pressure at the cylinder head or near the oil filter?

I am going to have the oil pressure tested, I hope/dont think it is the oil pressure as when my buzzer went off I always had more then 1 bar on the VDO gauge.

Oh, does anyone know the appropriate scale for the oil pressure. I have 0 to 5 bar VDO gauge, but get the feeling it should be 0-10 bar.

Regards
Scotty

MK1Scott said

I dont know what the engine size or model of the car was but the clocks have a rev counter and a digital display for the time only. There is a water temp gauge where the MPG needle/change LED is and on the rev counter there is only the petrol gauge. The spare clocks are the same as those in the driver.

These are the clocks from the CL (small block), GL (big block), or GLS (big block) and the Driver (small block).

I have currently disconnected the oil pressure switch on the cylinder head to stop the buzzer. Looking at the haynes it appears the given oil pressure should be approx 2 bar at 2000rpm. is this the oil pressure at the cylinder head or near the oil filter?

It's the minimum oil pressure near the oil filter - at oil temp of 80 deg C and at 2,000 rpm, the oil pressure should be a minimum of 2.1 bar. The oil pressure at the head isn't (and doesn't need to be) as high - the sender there doesn't trigger the oil buzzer until the pressure has dropped below 0.3 bar.

Oh, does anyone know the appropriate scale for the oil pressure. I have 0 to 5 bar VDO gauge, but get the feeling it should be 0-10 bar.

The 0-10 one is for VWs, for some reason Audi's use 0-5 bar ones (even though the engines and oil pumps are much the same :dontknow: ). You can use either one, but ensure that you have the same sender (0-10 or 0-5) or the readings will be wrong.