Oil Warning (red & Flashing) Help.....

[tuneznvibe]

Was Driving Along The M6 The Other Day When All Of A Sudden The Red Oil Warning Light Came On Beeping X3 Times And Flashing. Got The Car To The Nearest Garage To Top Up With Oil. Used A Litre But Still No Joy Carried On Flashing On The Way Home. Could This Be The Sensor? Oil Pump? Seems To Be Losing Some Oil Somewhere As The Level Is Slowly Dropping Again., Not Sure If Im Burning Some As I Cant See Any Visible Leaks On The Engine Or On The Drive Where I Park The Car.

BEFORE THIS HAPPENED ON START UP THE CAR HAS BEEN CREATING A LOUD KNOCKING NOISE, THIS SLOWLY DISAPEARS AFTER 2 MINS.

Help Please......

 

[Stan 24v]

It sounds like you may have a blocked oil pick up, or fooked oil pump. What level of oil is in it?

If you have knocking on start up then something is badly wrong, it could be bad or it could just be the tappets - which would explain why its lessened after the oil has heated up.

Where are you based mate?

 

[tuneznvibe]

Thanks for replying.....Based in Northampton, the guy I bought the car from 6 months ago used Jabba Motorsport (cupra specialist) based in Peterborough for routine service etc. Not sure if I should go to them, local garage or seat dealer.

Several possibilities as you have highlighted, just hoping wont be pricey I've already had to fix coolant sensor, door seals, coil packs, turbo gasket, heated side mirrors and even the bloody horn There's even a ticking sound from a black pump of some sort near the coolant tank that I'm not sure what it's for.

The car's got fsh from seat & jabba so dont know why it's all going wrong

 

[Stan 24v]

Ring Jabba mate, theyre decent people. Explain what the car is, and what the issues are, they'll tell you the best thing to do. They'll also tell you if they knew of the problems too.

 

[traumapat]

the ticking is just a bomb... nothing to worry about. all do it

id vouch for jabbas workmanship.. worth ringing them incase they know of the car.

i wouldnt even let it idle with that light flashing. put up a thread in the vagcom section and get somebody to check for fault codes. it can be done just with ignition on iirc. its similar to the seat diagnostic.

hopefully that will have logged a fault.... although it sounds more mechanical / serious.

if vagcom dosent show anything then maybe a compression test? see if anythings leaking? in the engine? no expert here tho..

fingers crossed its nothing major.

 

[tuneznvibe]

Got the car booked at seat dealership, was going to get jabbasport to check the car out but that would have meant driving the car for about 30-45mins to peterborough which may cause more engine damage. Will update this thread when I've run out of money to fix the car

Thanks for all your advice much appreciated, now gots to wait for the bad news....

 

[mattbeef]

It could just be faulty sensor if you know the car has enough oil
IIRC the red light is oil pressure so is more likely to be something serious if the sensor is working fine

 

[tuneznvibe]

Spoke to the guys at the dealership before I left, they reckon it might be the oil pump or bloked pick up pipe as stan 24v has pointed out their gonna find out tommorow, they reckon it'll be fine dont think i i've been losing oil as i topped it up when engine was already warm at halfrauds

Will update when i get the bill

 

[traumapat]

sounds good. fingers crossed

 

[Stan 24v]

Thats good mate, hopefully nothing else wrong with it. It would explain the tappets too.

 

[tuneznvibe]

Back again, car now seemingly fixed. According to seat stealership the problem was due to a filter housing fault & a breather hose was split. They replaced those parts plus the oil pressure switch, but what gets me is that they have charged a bracket costing £69.74 with part no. 06A115405BS. I have been trawling the net what the hell this is but no joy so far

I've tried to get them to explain what this so called described bracket is on my invoice that cost so much but they haven't got back to me as of yet. Any ideas?

All together with the tax man and labour charge involved it cost me £305.89, not completely happy as have still got the slight wheezing/grinding noise on cold starts but then disappears after a couple of minutes when the engine warms up. I've spoken to a work collegue that is also a garage mechanic and reckons its the oil pump, but says as long as its ok fingers crossed that seat were right in the diagnosis.

Have given her a good run to see if warning light returns but now seems to be ok

 

[Mitchy]

By oil warning light and 3 beeps you do mean the picture of the oil can dont you?

Just checking, as its very common for people to think their coolant gauge is their oil temp gauge.

The coolant red warning light and 3 beeps is a very common problem.

Please tell me its not this, the reason im saying is i didn't think the pic of the red oil can in the central panel flashed and beeped at you??

Red oil can light i thought told you, you have an oil pressure problem I.e you shouldn't be driving it if this is the case?

 

[Number86]

I can sense a lol coming on...

 

[Mitchy]

I hope he's not just spent £300+ for a top up of coolant fluid.

Red flashing/beeping light tells you, you are low on coolant.
Amber flashing/beeping tells you, your sensor in expansion tank is scaled up.

Red oil can light, car should not be driven surely as your engine is getting insufficient oil flow?You'd have a rod through the block after 10mins?

 

[tuneznvibe]

Finally got some answers from wheezing/grinding hoover type noise on cold starts, took ages to search nearly all the threads and quick phone call to seat confirmed common problem.

This noise comes from secondary air pump, a gap or crack in the pump will cause this horrible noise on start-up. This does not cause damage to the engine at all as the secondary air pump is used help reduce exhaust pollution gases on start-up when the engine is cold.

Also found diy remedy using this.... http://uk-mkivs.net/forums/thread/940861.aspx

Hope this helps others with the same problem

 

[tuneznvibe]

Definitely red oil can light, I'd rang the stealers before carrying on the journey. They reckon I may still have sufficient oil pressure to carry on home at my own risk. They also informed me the manual has set those specific instructions to stop immediately as a worse case scenario but in real terms this all depends on individual circumstances in relation to the oil pressure problem.

 

[tuneznvibe]

Dont advise to have carried on the journey as I have, if the oil pump was buggered Mitchy is right and this could have wrote off the engine or very expensive rebuild.