Engine management light

[supafrisk]

I was kipping in the car last night and was woken by beep beep beep, looked up and my oil temp gauge was on 120 degrees
And my engine management light had come on.
Yes there's oil in the car, the mad thing is, the oil temp gauge has been fluctuating between 90 and 105 ish for weeks. I also suspect a problem with the air con as when it is switched on, there is an audible "thud" after a couple of minutes at idle which happens every couple of minutes and the oil temp gauge seems to fluctuate mostly when this is happening.
The mad thing is, the car has been positively flying for the past 24 hours and hasn't missed a beat.
I left the car switched off for half an hour and then drove to Brum with no problems, so has anyone got any ideas?
And could a faulty switch be the cause of my original turbo woes or not? (Ie, lack of power etc).

[Welly]

Hello Supa!

I suppose it just threw a wobbly being idling for so long in the extreme heat yesterday. The 'thud' is when the compressor kicks in and out and is normal.

Oil does get very hot if there's no air flow over the engine and sump especially when it's 28 deg C outside

Actually an oil cooler might be good for situations like taxi'ing but that's getting a bit OTT in a way.

Welly

[bangernom1cs]

HI,
There actually 'is' a sort of oil cooler/heat-exchanger effort around the base of the oil filter housing where there's water pipes connected to the cooling system. This system also heats up the fuel filter on some models to prevent 'waxing' in the winter.
Best thing you can do in the high temperatures is to put the aircon on as this starts up the fans at the front.
On my D8 1.9 it would still idle in traffic all day at 100 degrees ish (on the guage) whilst taxi-ing . I usually engaged the aircon when my nerve ran out! However I never had cooling problems in many miles but three rads on the car. They do tend to silt up a bit though if even slightly neglected. Corrosion off salted roads usually see them off first.
On my D9 110 the jury is still out as I think my resistor blocks are playing me up still and I get no fans at all.
Since I disconnected the EGR (no engine light registering either) valve it seems temperature wise, less erattic as there is no heated exhaust gas going back into the engine.
I'll post what happens with some pix soon.

T

[Doggy]

Hi Soops!

There's a couple of pipes across the front, below the rad/condenser, (run along with the smaller aircon pipe), which I assumed, formed a rudimentary oil cooler, (at least on mine). Guess they'd only really do any good when the car's moving, as they're not really in the fan's airstream.

[Welly]

Hi Soops!

There's a couple of pipes across the front, below the rad/condenser, (run along with the smaller aircon pipe), which I assumed, formed a rudimentary oil cooler, (at least on mine). Guess they'd only really do any good when the car's moving, as they're not really in the fan's airstream.

That's the PAS cooling loop.

The HDi was supposed to have a water to oil cooler as banger said but I never found it.

[supafrisk]

Also when sat stationery with the air con on, the window mists up. Badly.
It's fine when driving, also the air con only seems cold when driving along, when stationary it feels like warm air not cold coming through.
Then all of a sudden it goes ice cold for a few minutes, then warm again

[Welly]

Sounds like your flaps are sticking

You need to remove the bulkhead splashdeck cover, and the pollen filter and check for a flap covering the fan motor. Most just gently lift it (carefull not to grind the plastic gears) and then pull the connector so it stays open for you. In other words it's sticking closed on full recirc

[mjb]

i'm thinking it might be a problem with the radiator fan(s) not kicking in, or coming into contact with something. It'd cause engine overheating as well as poor aircon performance when stationary

[Doggy]

i'm thinking it might be a problem with the radiator fan(s) not kicking in, or coming into contact with something. It'd cause engine overheating as well as poor aircon performance when stationary

Soops has almost certainly got the single fan arrangement like mine - don't think it ever operated until I fixed the aircon, but now you can hear it when idling. It's clearly audible running down as you turn the engine off.

[mjb]

easiest way to test full speed fan operation is to yank the plug to the coolant temperature sensor

[supafrisk]

The car went in for MOT today and I outlined the stop light coming on and the intermittent air con (forgot to tell you guys the actual speed seems to vary, even when I don't have it on auto )
To cut a long story short the car passed the MOT with flying colours, Dave says the oil temp could just be the excessively high ambient temp at the mo but we will investigate the oil temp switch at a later date.
As for the air con, he didn't seem to think it was running out of the ordinary but I've never had it blowing warm air out in 3 years, not even when idling at stationary so she's booked in tomorrow for re-gassing.

[supafrisk]

The answer was staring me in the face all along, the oil temp gauge fluctuation, the water light comng on once a month, the grunting and banging noises at idle - yes my car has P.M.T.








Mr. Aircon Man (Cooltech 07810045714 for those around Warwickshire/Northants/Leicestershire area, he's a mobile unit) checked it all, tested the air con and there are no leaks and it has the same amount of gas it left the factory with.

He did point out something five minutes later that both myself and Dave and Chris missed - the fact that the radiator fan/motor is not working at all
He said the motor was probably burnt out (and to my mind must have been for at least 5 months - I've been running this stationary at idle for an hour at a time whilst kipping in it and never even noticed the lack of fan sound - damn lucky I didn't cook the engine ).
Best tenner I've spent for diagnostics in a while

[steve_earwig]

...yes my car has P.M.T.

Not P.M.O.T.?

Nice one!

[mjb]

i'm thinking it might be a problem with the radiator fan(s) not kicking in

He did point out something five minutes later that both myself and Dave and Chris missed - the fact that the radiator fan/motor is not working at all

[supafrisk]

i'm thinking it might be a problem with the radiator fan(s) not kicking in

He did point out something five minutes later that both myself and Dave and Chris missed - the fact that the radiator fan/motor is not working at all

Okay, okay, so I didn't notice