OIl buzzer / light

[dyoungen]

While driving my 1985 Diesel Jetta this afternoon, I had something happen I"m not sure what to make of. First I heard a buzzer sound for a second. Then later I heard the buzzer start and the "OIL" light came on. I pulled off the road and checked the oil, which wasn't down but just low on the stick. I filled up the oil till it registered at the top of the marked area. Everything seemed fine. Later the buzzer and light came on again so I shut it down again. I pulled off the cap on top of the valve cover and there seemed to be plenty of oil splashing around in the head. The engine temprature was where it always is and nothing seems out of place. I might add that the Glo Plug light comes on every once in a while steady and sometimes flashing. Are the idiot lights living up to their name, "idiot lights"? BTW, the outside temp was around 35 degrees, not hot.

[myvolkswagen]

Does the Buzzer go off as you get in the higher rpm range? If it does you likely have low oil pressure and it's time for a rebuild

[Wayland]

It's not uncommon for the oil buzzer/light circuit to give trouble. You need to get ahold of a mechanical gauge and temporarily, or better yet, permanently install it so you know what's going on with your oil pressure.

[damac]

I drive an 85 turbo diesel jetta, although its stuck waiting for injectors right now, and a clutch job

In my limited experience, I got mine with shredded intermediate bearings which I have since replaced.

I had that oil buzzer go off on me on a sudden right turn at 20mph one day, but it continued when I hit the next straight away so I pulled over.  I had some oil with me because the car was new to me and when running it had a constant drip.  This is the way I picked it up and I drove it for a few weeks so I assume it took that long to be low on oil.

It went away with a quart fill in that moment, and I was watching things more and it never did it again, either on freeway runs or an a up/down 20 mile hill ride.

I have not relaunched the car yet, but I atleast got rid of the leaks and have replaced the main seals for the heck of it thus far.

So that probably doesn't help you at all, for all I know mine don't work properly



As far as that glowplug light, I had seen a little of what you describe but after reading these forums a bit, I knew I was going to "pimp" my glowplug system, and also I totally deleted my water seperator unit under the passenger side backseat underneath the car.  I then started fresh with new soft lines from the tank to the solid plastic rails under the car, and soft lines inside the engine bay.  For me I had to do this because everything was original with leaks, etc.

I  cut the wiring harness and taped up each wire lead and zipe tied them up.  I don't get that light now unless its the typical wait to start phase.

[Vincent Waldon]

Full dynamic oil pressure warning system troubleshooting info here:

http://vincewaldon.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=40&Itemid=28

Pictures and everything!

[dyoungen]

Thanks for the links and info. I"m going to get a "real" gage this weekend and check the oil pressure. I had a simular problem with my 87 F250 Diesel. The gages back then were worthless and I thought I had  major oil problems. After I got the oil pressure gage I found my pressure was fine. When the buzzer and light came on I was going straight and level, cruising about 60. Nothing else showed any problems. After the light and buzzer went off I continued driving and didn't have any broblems. If I find I have pump problems, does the oil pan just drop down and the oil pump come out with any problems or is there anything in the way? Oil pan gasket, anything else that needs replacing? What pressure am I going to be looking for, 50 cold, 20 hot?

[damac]

I don't know the pressures involved and I haven't installed a manual gage myself.

BUT I did drop the pan once and am doing it again right now

There are a good amount of I think 10mm bolts to undo for the actual pan.  A couple bolt into the tranny side of the engine that are hard to get to.  Take your time with extensions and swivle sockets to get a good bite to get those loose.  It was hell for me to get those started when it came to install them.  Those 2 go into that sides crank seal carrier.

The turbo return line has a flare connection at the oil pan. Hold a wrench opposite of your torque on the bolt when taking that bolt on/off so you don't put all the force on the weld to the pan!  No idea if it would hold but I wouldn't take a chance.

Once that pan is off(oh and of course take all your oil out first), on mine there is a plastic flared piece that pops onto the main shaft of the oil pump tube.  It pops off by hand, then you can get to a couple bolts that are easy to get to, then the whole thing comes out.  You can then seperate that piece from the main gears of the pump if you wanted to clean everything and the screen out.

I would imagine you are going to need to take the vacuum pump out though in order to mate the end of the shaft that connects with its shaft so it will turn the vacuum pump.  You would just realign after oil pump install then drop it back down into place.  There is a seal there you would probably want to replace.



NOW some advice.  When I did this I found the dreaded metal bits in the oil at the bottom of the pan.  Shavings and chunks in the screen from the intermediate shaft bearings.  You can search on this topic.  My jetta was new to me at 200,000 miles and they didn't make it, so I had to replace.  This is a whole other project which isn't that fun with the engine in the car and you have to be carefull because those things are thin and you can scrape the finish off with a hand tool easy.

[dyoungen]

I got the 10mm socket to use with the 1/4" drive ratchet and was able to get the 2 back bolts out. Now I"m waiting for the weather to get nicer. Where would be the best place to get an oil pump and the gaskets? I figure on getting the replacement parts so I can drop the pan and IF everything looks ok replace the pump and gaskets and put her back on the road. Before I order the parts I do plan on dropping the pan to see if the problem is just a clogged oil pickup screen. The odometer shows 206,000 miles and it had quit before I got it so it might be anything.

[damac]

I found tons of rtv in my screen from the other guy.  As well as the intermediate shaft bearing shavings.  Looked like he made a valve cover gasket out of the stuff it was so thick.  It was also in the cooling system, crap smeared all over the mating surfaces on the water pump, flanges, etc. 

I have been ordering from http://www.autohausaz.com because they offer free shipping on orders over $50.  Sometimes it would seem though that I cannot find everything.

Another good one is http://www.germanautoparts.com/

You would have to hunt around on each site to see what is the best deal.


When I took mine all apart, except the screen, everything looked pretty darn clean.  None of the gears were scored and the oil pump rod that drives the vacuum pump seemed fine as well, so I put mine all back together to use.

[dyoungen]

Today I droped the oil pan and the screen didn't seem plugged. There was some stuff up inside the screen area but there wasn't enough to block the oil flow. I did find some small gritty stuff in the the bottom of the oil pan including the big piece of something that looks like a bearing. Although it looks like a bearing, it doesn't have the wear marks like a bearing would have. It is thin less than .050 thick. It was just laying on the bottom. The motor has over 206,000 miles and I"m thinking of replacing the oilpump just to be on the safe side. I can't tell if the motor has ever been gone thru so I"m wondering, replace the oil pump and give it a try? I was looking at one of the parts places online and am thinking of going with the upgraded oil pump, This is the original equipment pump from the later 2.0L engines.
Or should I stay with the original 1.8 oil pump? There's $30.00 differance but if it'll fix what ails the motor, it'll be worth it. Below are pictures of the "unknown" thing from the oil pan.

http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn107/dyoungen/P1010097.jpg
http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn107/dyoungen/P1010096.jpg
http://i302.photobucket.com/albums/nn107/dyoungen/P1010095.jpg

[Vincent Waldon]

I"m going to get a "real" gage this weekend and check the oil pressure.

When you measured your oil pressure with a gauge what pressures did you see??

The service manual has the procedure for miking an oil pump for wear... you might rather save your money for an intermediate shaft bearing... which is what that piece kinda looks like to me, and will absolutely cause low oil pressure issues downstream of a oil pump that's working just fine.  

[dyoungen]

I'll have to admit, I didn't check the oil pressure before I dropped the oil pan. I figured that if the buzzer and light both came on, something had to be wrong like the screen being plugged. The pan gasket looks like it's in great shape so I think I"ll just put the pan back on and get an oil pressure gage like I should have before I took the pan off. Can the intermediate shaft bearing come out in that big of a piece? The piece of metal doesn't look like it has any wear marks.

[Vincent Waldon]

Unfortunately the buzzer and light can come on with perfectly fine oil pressure and a clean pickup screen... per the URL I linked above.

[damac]

The intermediate "bearing" isn't what you would think being new to these cars.  I learned this as well when I tackled the issue.  They call them a bearing but it is actually what I would call 2 very thin races that are very delicate!  No pointy tools to drive these things in or you will leave a score mark and gouge the material before you know it!

And those pics DO like the intermediate bearings.  What you will find is if you carefully support and take out the intermediate shaft from the engine(my jetta had to drop the engine a tad on that side to get it to clear wheel bay) is there are more flakes like that where it seats in the bearing.  Some of my pieces stuck to the shaft since it was oily and then I was able to carefully pick out the other cracked pieces through the hole.

It is like a top layer of paint or coating that appeared to have broken away from the bearing, still leaving a whole piece pressed into the engine.  I guess that leads to play and all of these bad things people talk about on these forums   And don't just get the shaft bare and try and wiggle it.  Mine had most of the pieces jammed in there so it wasn't obvious by moving it side to side.  I had noticed some wierd tracking in that shaft pulley when I had the engine running though!  I did not know at the time it was a serious issue, luckily I then put my car up on jacks and have been rebuilding it for the past few months.

I think you must head the advice of the awesome people on these forums and stop driving the car and tackle this project and look at all the relative parts before rebuilding everything.

[dyoungen]

What are the "intermediate bearings" listed as? I looked at both links and didn't see anything listed as that. What is involved with replacing the intermediate bearing? I do think I"ll check the oil pressure before going into the engine as I"ve had the dash lights give me some strange indications when nothing was wrong but I do want to cover all of the bases.