Low oil warning

carzony

Hi all,

I got a low oil warning light on my 2005 Golf last night. It originally gave me the Yellow warning light, then even after filling it with 2 litres of oil, I got the Red Warning light advising me to stop. I immediately turned the engine off and added more oil this morning as it was still a tiny bit low.

The engine is now revving extremely high when at idle. The car is fine to drive but now and then revs extremely high.. I fear there has been damage caused?

Any advice appreciated..

biko

Wait for engine to get cold and check level again, just to know that you did not overfill it.

carzony

Just checked, level is perfect now.

Atlantic Dawn

How much oil did you add in total? Looks like car car may have been near dry, any ideas if there's a leak or is the car burning the oil?

Alanstrainor

What engine is it? Something not right there at all... what engine is it? If it's a 2.0TDI mk5 or so, then it has a total capacity of 3.8 litres. So topping up by 2 and a bit litres would seem mental. Need more info really. Is it pouring oil on the ground? And oil smells when the engine is on?

carzony

It's a 2L Petrol and may be burning oil after these recent experiences. I only gave it a full oil change a month ago...

carzony

Just ran the car there now and it seems a lot better, strangely. I left the engine to cool down and it started, sounded and idled perfectly. I will start it again in morning to see what it's like though. My yellow oil light is still showing even though the level is perfect.

richardsheil

Show us a picture of the light. It may not be the oil light at all.

Please take this in the positive spirit it is intended.

best of luck
Richard

George Dalton

The yellow light isn’t a big issue as you can physically check the level and you know it’s ok.

The red warning is more serious. Those engines can be prone to sludge buildup which eventually blocks up the oil pump pickup. That’s the most likely cause of the low oil pressure warning. Unfortunately the location of the oil pressure sensor makes it extremely difficult to do an oil pressure test so very often what we do in these situations is just remove the sump and take a look at the pickup. If it’s dirty then clean/replace will usually sort the problem.

carzony

The engine is running normally again. No rattles, knocks or high/low revs like it experienced the other night. I think I may have gotten lucky and no damage was caused.

The Yellow Oil Light is still on so it must be a blockage or the level sensor.

The yellow oil light came on a few weeks ago and after a long,hard drive on the motorway it just went off.

Alanstrainor

carzony wrote: »

The engine is running normally again. No rattles, knocks or high/low revs like it experienced the other night. I think I may have gotten lucky and no damage was caused.

The Yellow Oil Light is still on so it must be a blockage or the level sensor.

The yellow oil light came on a few weeks ago and after a long,hard drive on the motorway it just went off.

I'd be getting the codes read for that tbh. Just to be on the safe side.

Neilw

That cheap mk5 gti you bought seems to have a lot of problems op, I'd listen to George and have the oil pickup checked.