VW Golf red light problem!

DangerMouse27

Hi
Red means stop! few weeks ago,the day after i passed my nct,a red oil light flickered on and off followed by a clicking noise.Stopped the car and checked the oil,turned back on and car was fine and noise was gone.
Following day i went to local advance.pstp and they did a oil dip and plugged i and out a few plugs and said its prob the switches about to go..I asked is it ok to drive on...
Said yeah! just keep checking the oil levels.He didnt know what the noise was but said it was prob unrelated.
Kept happening and of course i stopped checked the oil and continued as per advice.

2 weeks later

Car broke down two days ago,red light came on and noise was clankin away.Stopped it and towed it to the same garage.

Guys are taking no culpability in me still driving on it from advice and say they could never have spotted the problem.

They maintain i had a part fitted poorly in the lower engine from a job i had done...2 years ago!Needless to say those mechanics tell me they r full of it.

Anyone have the red light and noise? what was the problem?

Tipsy Mac

In fairness I would have brought the car to a garage to check it out. Red oil light is likely to be the oil pump or something along those lines that is starving the engine of oil, an orange oil light usually means it needs a topup of oil.

DangerMouse27

It was Advance Pitstop that i brought it too and in fairness to them they were usually very good for me..the guy dealing with me was very distracted and was convinced it was electrical.
I wish i had of brought it to a vw garage that time.
Whats worse is he told me to still drive on it.

At the time the light wasnt on,but surely a diagnostics check would have pinpointed loss in oil pressure that u suggest?

crosstownk

DangerMouse27 wrote: »

2 weeks later

Car broke down two days ago,red light came on and noise was clankin away.

Worse case scenario (and quite possible) is that your big-end bearings have failed due to low oil pressure. At best (and hopefully) it's the hydraulic valve lifters that are making the noise and caused the engine to stop.

Get the car checked by a pro and hopefully you won't need a new engine.

As for responsibility, you now have a serious uphill battle to force culpability. A comprehensive diagnosis may have shown up the low oil pressure problem. If an oil pressure test along with correct diagnosis of the oil pressure warning system was carried out it is quite possible that you situation could have been avoided but you drove on (on what you believed to be sound advice) and now the problem has come to a head.

In my experience Advance Pitstop are in the business of tyres, exhausts, wipers and simple high turnover tasks of that nature. Fault diagnosis is not their forte despite what they may claim.

DangerMouse27

Thanks for the great advice..im bringing in a mechanic who knows vw golf engines to advance tmrw and he is gonna decipher the waffle they will throw at me.

The regional manager of advance says they had no way of knowing what was wrong,no test would have worked and they would have had to take apart the engine to find out what they think is the cause.
Surely if its anything oil related,they can always check some diagnostic tool and will show up something...
My thinking is that he was so convinced it was an electrical fault(9/10 it might be) but this one time it was something else.

Thanks again...il let u know how it goes tmrw

beachlife

Hi there,
What's sort of engine in the golf ? 1.8 20v ?

mickdw

DangerMouse27 wrote: »

It was Advance Pitstop that i brought it to

I wouldnt call advance a garage to be honest.
Was the guy who looked at it even a trained mechanic?

If a car is showing a red oil light, you can assume low oil, loss of oil pressure which could be due to oil pump fault, blocked pick up, damaged pick up etc or electrical fault such as dodgy switch. It is criminal to assume that just cause there is oil in the sump that it must be electrical. It really is not good enough for any 'mechanic' to let you assume such a thing.

beachlife

I agree,however if all they did is open the bonnet checked the oil,started the car and watched the oil light go out,then i hardly call that a diagnostic check,whats more if it was my car i wouldn't then happily drive off into the sunset thinking every thing is fine.The RED lights on the dash mean STOP. I would want to be very sure MY car was all right to drive (and would like to see proof)before I'd accept the mechanics opinion.