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D'oh - check your oil!!!!!
Basic warning for anyone who is as 'forgetful' as I am when it comes to car maintenance. CHECK YOUR OIL!
Oil pressure light came on as I sat queuing on the M621 from Leeds last night. Fortunately, I managed to drive the five mile journey with the engine doing no more than 1500 rpm and lots of freewheeling too.
Fortunately had about 3 - 4 litres of 5-30w semi synthetic in the garage that'll keep it going until its service next week. Phew.
Are you sure its the oil pressure light, or the oil level light?
A good lesson, well learn't I feel
mine goes into limp mode before it puts any lights on
Originally Posted by Big Sig
That's a good point, it's not always low oil that throws the light on, check you haven't overfilled it or you will be getting some serious repair bills pretty soon.
Some people are foolish enough to believe that on-board systems and warning lights fault codes etc. mean that there is no need to check oil level under the bonnet. Even BMW boasted there was no need to raise the bonnet between services, or some similar cr4p. How irresponsible.
It should be borne in mind that warning systems of any type are not foolproof, and have no failsafe mechanism, i.e. the fault detector can itself be faulty.
Besides how long does it take to do simple under bonnet level checks?
i always try to check mine just to get an idea but once i was driving and lost all my power i rembered the vauxhall dealers saying if its low on oil it will go into limp mode all though no light come up not even spanner light i pulled over and check it and it was on first line i topped it up and it was fine,but if you check your oil after a drive its a false reading really cause you need to let the oil settle or you could over fill it
Having checked the handbook, it was in fact the oil level light (top right hand side of the dash).
Either way, when I got it home and checked it there wasn't any oil on the bottom of the dipstick.
A timely reminder not to be a numpty in future.
The dipstick only has a measure of 1 litre between min and max marks so make sure you haven't added too much oil, or it will blow the seals out.
Checked the can and it looks like I put in 2.5 litres and it's showing above the max mark (although not by a great deal) on the dipstick.
Bearing in mind that it is in for service a week on Saturday, is it worth paying someone to drain the excess?
BTW - isn't blowing seals illegal?
Last edited by eddie twadds; 20th February 2008 at 14:11.
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