passat oil light reset??

Kavs

Right ,driving m50 today and the orange oil can symbol appeared on the dash - check oil level, grand so pull off and stop at a topaz and pick up 1l of oil ,(feicers charged me €17 ,daylight robbery!!) and top her up , it was quiet low allright.
Now the thing is the oil can symbol is still up on the dash and check oil level appears everytime I start her up?? Is there some way to reset this or what? any ideas would be great. Its a 02 tdi passat.

Tipsy Mac

Have you checked the oil level since?

It can take a about 10 or 15mins to reset when at the correct level.

Kavs

ya its been parked up for the last 2 hours checked it there 20 mins ago and the level was just above normal..

mickdw

If you are sure the level is right, I would assume its a faulty sensor. The warning should go off when all is well.
Is it just the orange light that came on? If you were getting a red oil light, it would be down to loss of oil pressure and a very serious problem.
Get it sorted asap anyway!

Stoolbend

opening and closing the bonnet should reset the light. it could be the switch on the bonnet catch.

Kavs

no definetly not a red light !! I have it booked for a service in about 2 weeks, so i'll have to keep an eye on it till then. Just taught maybe you have to reset something

Kavs

"it could be the switch on the bonnet catch."

really?

mickdw

Being the orange light it should be ok but I would get it in asap for the service. It seems like you have a faulty sensor but you can make scrap of an engine in about 20 seconds if it goes down on oil pressure. Better be safe than sorry when dealing with this type of thing.

AzureAuto

Theres a funny problem with some VAG instrument clusters, i.e. the yoke with the rev counter, mileometer and fuel gauge set into it. Its a fault with the coding and no matter whether there's enough oil in system, it requires plugging into VAGcom or similar to reset the soft coding for the instrument cluster. Then the orange light will switch off. Ive had to do it several times. Depending on who is doing your service, they sgould have suitable diagnostic equipment to do it.

Kavs

i have to drive back to galway tomorrow , so I'll check the level again in the morning and keep an eye out for drips under the car. hope nothing goes wrong!

Kavs

"it requires plugging into VAGcom or similar to reset the soft coding for the instrument cluster "
I hope thats the case! I'll call my mechanic on Monday.
cheers for the advice ppl!

mickdw

AzureAuto wrote: »

Theres a funny problem with some VAG instrument clusters, i.e. the yoke with the rev counter, mileometer and fuel gauge set into it. Its a fault with the coding and no matter whether there's enough oil in system, it requires plugging into VAGcom or similar to reset the soft coding for the instrument cluster. Then the orange light will switch off. Ive had to do it several times. Depending on who is doing your service, they sgould have suitable diagnostic equipment to do it.

Thats odd. Ive never seen that happen. It certainly shouldnt happen

AzureAuto

Im with you there, very odd alright. Ive had it happen on a few Golfs with the Tdi engine and one time with a 1.8 T Passat. Had my head wrecked, checking outputs from oil pressure sensor and oil level sensor, all grand, a few oil changes, still the orange light wouldnt go out. Spoke to a lad who works VW and he gave me the tip. Dont know why it happens, but seems that once the code is switched, light is reset...

Kavs

ya its strange allright, i'll get the mechanic to hook it up on Monday seems to be a bad way to go about it though!

Mr.Diagnostic

AzureAuto wrote: »

Theres a funny problem with some VAG instrument clusters, i.e. the yoke with the rev counter, mileometer and fuel gauge set into it. Its a fault with the coding and no matter whether there's enough oil in system, it requires plugging into VAGcom or similar to reset the soft coding for the instrument cluster.

What do you change as regards the soft coding?

AzureAuto

Using VAG Com, in the Instrument Cluster menu, thinks its 17, there's a field with a 4 or 5 digit code in it, this (as I understand it) is the code that tells the instrument cluster ECU what lights to switch on in repsonse to various factors. On the version I use when you hover the curser over this field a pop up menu appears and it tells you what each of the digits represents, some are for european market vehicles, others for the american markets etc; some digits represent fixed service intervals, others for variable.
I just take a note of the original code and then substitute one of the digits with another. When the light goes off, I switch the code back to its original setting and it always stays off!! Forget which digit it is, but will check at work tomorrow and report back. Sometimes the car wont let you change the code to a certain digit, so will revert to the original code when you try to apply the changes...
Again, dont know why, but it does work!:)

Mr.Diagnostic

Very strange. I have seen many cars lose their coding but never a VAG. If I understand you right you are changing what is the correct code to a wrong one and then changing it back to the right one again. Makes no sense.
The oil level warning, in my experience, has always been the bonnet switch.

_Kaiser_

If I remember right this happened on my last Passat (also a 02) as well. Orange light came on and even after topping it up to the correct level the light stayed on and was only fixed by a trip to the garage and some VAGcom work.

TJJP

Not knowing year, fuel and so on it's tricky, but some options here:

http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?&id=2457779

Otherwise, if it's an earlier model, disconnect the battery for about an hour then reconnect, and that should reset the light.

nmacc

It's not unknown for the bonnet switch to collect water and corrode. if the contacts are corroded then the CPU doesn't realise that the bonnet has been opened and it doesn't reset the orange light.

Check the wiring to the switch. Disconnect the plug and short out the contacts. This may solve the problem.

If the water ingress was bad the oxidation may have run up the cables in a sort of capilliary action. If the copper is black then you'll have to cut off the connector, scrape some clean copper on the wireas and then short it out.

ShayK1

and where is this switch?

AzureAuto

nmacc wrote: »

It's not unknown for the bonnet switch to collect water and corrode. if the contacts are corroded then the CPU doesn't realise that the bonnet has been opened and it doesn't reset the orange light.

Check the wiring to the switch. Disconnect the plug and short out the contacts. This may solve the problem.

If the water ingress was bad the oxidation may have run up the cables in a sort of capilliary action. If the copper is black then you'll have to cut off the connector, scrape some clean copper on the wireas and then short it out.

...Maybe ive been overcomplicating this problem all this time if thats the case! You learn something new everyday!:D

Stoolbend

its just a little 2 pin plug going on to the bonnet catch. once you cross and un cross the wires it should be reset.

ShayK1

TJJP wrote: »

disconnect the battery for about an hour then reconnect, and that should reset the light.

This works!! Make sure you have the radio code if you need it though.30 minutes is enough to leave it disconnected though.