Oil Light question

[NCGrnTurbo]

2 Questions. My oil light is coming on but it has plenty of oil in it and its beeping. After a few minutes, it goes off. Also, what type of oil should you use in these 1.8 turbo cars. Its not a performance car. It has around 93k miles and I just bought it. Thanks,
Jason

[zeusenergy]

Originally Posted by NCGrnTurbo

2 Questions. My oil light is coming on but it has plenty of oil in it and its beeping. After a few minutes, it goes off. Also, what type of oil should you use in these 1.8 turbo cars. Its not a performance car. It has around 93k miles and I just bought it. Thanks,
Jason

If your oil warning is going off, I'd be very careful to keep from driving it until you can find out what's up. Oil pressure may be low...

[cisco]

Im having the exact same problem. MY ligt was coming on periodically and i topped it off because i saw it was a bit low and now everytime i accelerate it comes on and beeps repeatedly. Could it be that i topped it off too much? The light goes off when i slow down or come to a complete stop which is the opposite of everybody elses problem ive read about.

[nyum96]

Clogged pickup tube from the oil pan to the oil pump. You can drop the pan and do it yourself if you have some type of mechnical knowledge. The tube should cost aroun $9.

[noR]

When the light flashes, it means pull over NOW.

Sorry guys, you shouldn't be driving unless you know what the cause is and have a good excuse.

Here's some good luck; I hope nothing got seriously damaged.

[milton]

I never had this problem until I changed the oil to a sinthetic one sometimes the oil light flash 2 or three times and turns off. But the level is ok. Any ideas?

[slvrbtlboi]

Mine is doing the exact same thing. Just started it today. Comes on beeps 3 times while accelerating. As soon as I stop, it goes off, then when I take off again, it comes back on and beeps 3 more times. Goes off everytime I stop, then comes back on when I take off. Anyone ever figure this out?

[Blugg]

Originally Posted by noR

When the light flashes, it means pull over NOW.

Sorry guys, you shouldn't be driving unless you know what the cause is and have a good excuse.

Here's some good luck; I hope nothing got seriously damaged.

In my experience of Bugs, if it flashes, you have around 30 seconds before the engine seizes. Miss my old New Bug

[MyOtherRidesAVette]

Originally Posted by slvrbtlboi

Mine is doing the exact same thing. Just started it today. Comes on beeps 3 times while accelerating. As soon as I stop, it goes off, then when I take off again, it comes back on and beeps 3 more times. Goes off everytime I stop, then comes back on when I take off. Anyone ever figure this out?

Lack of oil pressure, perhaps something partially blocking the oil pump intake (on accelaeration, as pressure increases blockage prevents necessary flow for needed oil pressure, or simply a failing oil pump. Needs immediate attention. Lack of oil pressure, you run the very real risk of trashing the turbo and/or the engine.

M.

[mullardel34]

OMG! The oil light is red, not yellow, in color; it's not a warning, it's red to inform you that a critical condition has occurred! The oil light in a New Beetle means low/inadequate oil pressure (not that the oil-level is low)! When the oil light is "on", your oil-pressure is below the required 1.2-1.6 bars of pressure. Keep running the engine with the oil light illuminated and "very bad things" will happen to your 1.8L turbo-engine.

If the engine-oil level is full and the oil-light is "on", then something is seriously wrong with the engine-oil pressure level. The use of synthetic engine-oil will not cause a "bad" oil-pressure reading. The VW 1.8L turbo-engine is designed for synthetic engine-oil that meets the VW 502.00 engine-oil specifications (which is formulated for use with the high-sulfur US gasolines; the VW 505.00 specification is formulated for low-sulfur European gasolines). A lot of us use Castrol SYNTEC 0W-30 full-synthetic engine-oil (the label states "European Formula" right on the front and the VW 502.00/505.00 conformance is listed on the back); it's readily available at Advanced Auto stores and AutoZone stores in the US.

The earlier recommendation to replace the engine-oil pick-up tube (along with the input screen) is absolutely correct. Some portion of your engine-oil system is obstructed. DO NOT run your engine again until you've resolved your engine-oil pressure issue!

[IndyTom]

Originally Posted by NCGrnTurbo

2 Questions. My oil light is coming on but it has plenty of oil in it and its beeping. After a few minutes, it goes off. Also, what type of oil should you use in these 1.8 turbo cars. Its not a performance car. It has around 93k miles and I just bought it. Thanks,
Jason

Yup, I am with others here. That oil light could mean that your oil pump is going out or has gone out. If it has than your engine will soon seize so I would have that checked ASAP!
Recommended Oil for the 1.8T is Synthetic 5W40 or 0W40.
I am running Mobil One 0W40 European Formula in mine. Runs nice and smooth. Castrol Edge 5W40 also meets or exceeds VW, Porsche, Mercedes, Audi, BMW standards. Both it and the Mobil One 0W40 is available at your neighborhood Autozone.
Also because of the Turbo and the added generated heat I would recommend changing your oil every 4000-5000 miles. Sludge is a killer in our engines which also can clog oil pumps. My suggestion is to buy a can of Seafoam. Poor the entire can into your crankcase and run it for a day see if your oil light goes off. Seafoam is a solvent and an excellent lubricant, it may free up your clogged oil channels. If not it may be time to bring it to a professional. Also after a couple of days running Seafoam change your oil and filter.

[IndyTom]

Originally Posted by milton

I never had this problem until I changed the oil to a sinthetic one sometimes the oil light flash 2 or three times and turns off. But the level is ok. Any ideas?

It has nothing to do with Synthetic or Non-Synthetic Oil. The 1.8 engine in the early days had some major sludge problems and since then they were recommending only to use Synthetic Oil in the 1.8T. Also more frequent changes than on Non-Turbo cars are suggested. I change mine every 4000 Miles with 0W40 Mobil One. Engine has 160k+ Miles on it and I never seen the oil light come on and it has never used a drop of Oil between changes.
If your oil light comes on it has something to do with the Oil pump not able to perform as needed. Either it is failing or the Oil pick up tube is clogged by loose sludge floating around.

[psaboic]

I had a similar issue on my Jetta ( I know, not a NB, but still a VW) Anyway, it turned out to be a bad oil pressure sending switch. If possible, hook up a gauge to see what the oil pressure actually is. If the light goes off and the gauge tells you that you have adequate pressure, most likely the pressure sending switch is bad. I agree it is probably not a great idea to be driving with the light flashing, but I also have a hard time believing all these cars have failing oil pumps.

Good luck,

Glenn

[IndyTom]

Originally Posted by psaboic

I had a similar issue on my Jetta ( I know, not a NB, but still a VW) Anyway, it turned out to be a bad oil pressure sending switch. If possible, hook up a gauge to see what the oil pressure actually is. If the light goes off and the gauge tells you that you have adequate pressure, most likely the pressure sending switch is bad. I agree it is probably not a great idea to be driving with the light flashing, but I also have a hard time believing all these cars have failing oil pumps.

Good luck,

Glenn

Good Point! Do you know where to hook up such an Oil Pressure gauge to test the actual oil pressure?
I believe that the actual oil pumps are pretty durable and don't fail often. It is more likely that the Oil pick up tube and screen get clogged due to neglect by not chainging the oil
in time or using an incorrect grade of oil.
Whatever the reason it would be advisable to have it checked as soon as possible.

[Uncle Chuck]

Have you ever done it and what size and kind of tools did you use?

[CGK]

I've got to pop in here and clear up one point for everyone. There have been a few references to the sludge problem with the 1.8T.
That is correct but it only affected the non-transverse mounted 1.8T's found in the Passat and Audi A4. Longitudinally mounted engines had a different oil pan and sump that was prone to sludge build up on engines that were clearly abused by not having oil changes done at the prescribed intervals or had the wrong the oil in them for an extended period of time.
NB,GTI and Jetta 1.8T's did not suffer from this problem.
Now, if wrong oil, dirty filters and lack of proper oil changes occur in these cars, then sure, sludge could be a problem but it's rare and not prevalent in these models.
Nuff said

[IndyTom]

Originally Posted by CGK

I've got to pop in here and clear up one point for everyone. There have been a few references to the sludge problem with the 1.8T.
That is correct but it only affected the non-transverse mounted 1.8T's found in the Passat and Audi A4. Longitudinally mounted engines had a different oil pan and sump that was prone to sludge build up on engines that were clearly abused by not having oil changes done at the prescribed intervals or had the wrong the oil in them for an extended period of time.
NB,GTI and Jetta 1.8T's did not suffer from this problem.
Now, if wrong oil, dirty filters and lack of proper oil changes occur in these cars, then sure, sludge could be a problem but it's rare and not prevalent in these models.
Nuff said

There was some thread on the Vortex where a guy claims that a dirty oil filter will actually clean the oil better than a new filter. He changes his oil on a regular basis but only changes the oil filter every 3rd time or 30,000 miles. I think that is nuts.

[Smileybug]

What? How is a gunked up filter going to clean anything better? I went one time doing an oil change and not doing the filter in my 2.0L, and that's only because I couldn't get the darn filter off and knew I was going to be having my mechanic do some work for me around when the next change would be so they could handle it :P

I always do filter with the oil change. And I do my changes around 5k. Also, its not even that its a good thing to do the filter at the changes, but often most filters are only rated to 7500 or 10,000 miles anyway. 30k is just far too much.

[Dipstick]

Originally Posted by IndyTom

There was some thread on the Vortex where a guy claims that a dirty oil filter will actually clean the oil better than a new filter. He changes his oil on a regular basis but only changes the oil filter every 3rd time or 30,000 miles. I think that is nuts.

I concur. It is like washing your car with a dirty shop towel. But it was on the internet and therefore it's true!

My take on this is don't risk it; if the light is coming on stop the engine. I don't know how much a rebuild on one of these engines is or if a low mileage pull out engine is available, but I'm sure it would be a nice down payment on a 2012 Beetle.