I am hoping people can give me a bit of a steer with this.
On my van for the first time yesterday the red oil light started flickering and coming on when coming to a stand still at road junctions. As soon as I raise the revs a little it goes out (the idle is at aprox 1000rpm). The light doesn't appear to go on unless the clutch is depressed. I was driving from London down to Devon when it happened. I stopped to check the motor. The oil was a little low so I topped up to the max line on the dip stick (just under a litre). This initially seemed to have sorted the problem, but it started again in about 10 mins - so I assume just the time taken for the new oil to get back up to temp. From what I can tell there has been no change to how the engine sounds and it seems to run ok. The dip stick whilst hot-ish was possible to handle. The Van is pretty heavily loaded. Keeping a close eye on things I got to Devon (about a further 120 miles without mishap)
The engine is quite old (1600TP rebuilt form an original 1500SP ... it came with the van). I am assuming that the issue is one of three things
1. The pressure switch is faulty (unlikely perhaps as it has been fine up to now - I gave it a thorough clean).
2. The oil pump is on its way out.
3. The engine is old and the oil pressure is dropping as a result - and it has now fallen such that the light is coming on at idle (might have been close to this for some time).
My question is ... given the above - is all this a gradual process meaning I need to change/overhaul the engine pretty soon, but everything else being equal I should be ok to continue the trip (down to cornwall and then back up to London aprox 400 miles) ? - I can then swap the engine out when I get back(I am in the process of sorting a new power unit). Or does the light mean that the process is now critical and it could let go at any moment?
Any thoughts/experience on this would be much appreciated?
On my van for the first time yesterday the red oil light started flickering and coming on when coming to a stand still at road junctions. As soon as I raise the revs a little it goes out (the idle is at aprox 1000rpm). The light doesn't appear to go on unless the clutch is depressed. I was driving from London down to Devon when it happened. I stopped to check the motor. The oil was a little low so I topped up to the max line on the dip stick (just under a litre). This initially seemed to have sorted the problem, but it started again in about 10 mins - so I assume just the time taken for the new oil to get back up to temp. From what I can tell there has been no change to how the engine sounds and it seems to run ok. The dip stick whilst hot-ish was possible to handle. The Van is pretty heavily loaded. Keeping a close eye on things I got to Devon (about a further 120 miles without mishap)
The engine is quite old (1600TP rebuilt form an original 1500SP ... it came with the van). I am assuming that the issue is one of three things
1. The pressure switch is faulty (unlikely perhaps as it has been fine up to now - I gave it a thorough clean).
2. The oil pump is on its way out.
3. The engine is old and the oil pressure is dropping as a result - and it has now fallen such that the light is coming on at idle (might have been close to this for some time).
My question is ... given the above - is all this a gradual process meaning I need to change/overhaul the engine pretty soon, but everything else being equal I should be ok to continue the trip (down to cornwall and then back up to London aprox 400 miles) ? - I can then swap the engine out when I get back(I am in the process of sorting a new power unit). Or does the light mean that the process is now critical and it could let go at any moment?
Any thoughts/experience on this would be much appreciated?
