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So I did check to see that my oil sensor light was working, and it was not. Looked it up in my owners manual, its right below the battery warning light which does work.
It is really hard to notice when a lamp does not light up and most folks don't dwell at ignition on so that would be easily missed. So how long has my lamp been non-functioning? I was wondering about that my self, but when I changed the oil yesterday, I found my self watching and waiting for the oil pressure light to go out, as I aways do, and as I had for the Passat earlier in the day, and found my self realizing, duh, that it was not there to watch. So I think that I would have noticed the lamp issue at the time of oil change last May if it non-functional then.
So given the reports of others, it seems that these pressure switches are probably failing in large numbers, and many folks will not know that this has happened and would never know if there was a loss of oil. Note that the ECU does not montitor this, it will tell you if you are low on washer fluid but has no interest in oil pressure.
So I got out my Fluke DVM. From the top, I reached down and found where the senor is. There is not much room there, between the starter and the alternator. There is a single wire which attaches with a spade connetor to the sensor. The sensor has a rather large hex body which is easy to feel working blind. The sensor is close to the centerline of the block. Its quite dirty there as well! You can't see it, but look at the mess on your hand after feeling around to find out where things are.
I pulled the connector off, put one lead to ground and the other into the spade connector, 0.0 VDC, turn on the ignition, 12+ VDC. This means that the lamp circuit is getting power, and the bulb is not blown, which would have produced an open circuit.
Then I removed the DVM from the leads and connected the two together. Now the lead is grounded, turn on the ignition and the low oil pressure lamp lights up. So the vehicle side works great. This test alone is conclusive and the one above is illustrative but not neccessary.
Then I measured the resistance of the pressure switch to ground, its reading in the mega ohms, which is expected given the other tests.
So there are the two or three things that can be checked.
I think that I will be able to remove and replace the pressure switch from the top side without getting under the vehicle. So that will be plan A. However, when replacing this switch, remember that this is the oil going to the bearings. My block is very dirty back there and you do not want to introduce dirt into the oil passage with the new switcg dragging in dirt. Where does the dirt come from. Ever spill any oil when filling as the oil filler? Guess where it goes :)
posted by 208.24.179...
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