Oil warning light 1.4 petrol

Darpod14

Member
Hi guys
My yellow low oil warning light keeps coming on, normally after around 50-60 miles of driving.
I check the oil and it is normal, it has just been serviced with quality oils and all filters have been changed.
The only way the light will go off is by putting in 1/4 litre or so of oil.
Any ideas of a fix? Should I change the oil pressure sensor?
 
It's probably the oil level sensor. Mine did exactly the same.

Yellow is 'oil level', red is 'oil pressure'.

The bad news is that the sensor lives in the bottom of the sump on a 1.4MPi, so you need to drop the oil. The good news is you can obviously check the level manually, so although annoying, you don't have to panic. If you're due an oil change, happy days, it's a doddle to do the sensor at the same time. Might be worth doing a quick check of the sensor wiring, but odds are it's the sensor itself. I used a pattern one from eBay which behaved perfectly.

If you ever see the red oil pressure light, it's almost certainly the sensor again (I've had two go already, one on a TDi, one on a FSi), but you daren't chance it. You'd want to get it recovered and the oil pressure checked with a test gauge.
 
Thanks very much, I think I will just for the sake of £50 drop the oil and buy the sensor, hate lights on dash!
I agree, drive me nuts as well: really spoil the quality feel of the driving experience.

When it's out, it leaves a big hole so I couldn't resist getting a pinkie up in there just to feel around for debris of any kind but even at 160K miles, it was fine.
 
You haven’t got “mini DIS” turned on have you (if you haven’t got DIS)? When I had it on in my 1.4 petrol it would throw up low oil level warnings about every 40 minutes of running time. Turning mini dis off cured it.

*edit* just spotted you have dis listed in your signature, so I’ll crawl back under my rock.
 
You haven’t got “mini DIS” turned on have you (if you haven’t got DIS)? When I had it on in my 1.4 petrol it would throw up low oil level warnings about every 40 minutes of running time. Turning mini dis off cured it.

*edit* just spotted you have dis listed in your signature, so I’ll crawl back under my rock.
That's interesting: I was going to ask whether it was possible to fire up mini DIS on the FSi. I'll bare this in mind should I turn it on and I start to get oil warnings.

I wonder why it makes a difference?
 
That's interesting: I was going to ask whether it was possible to fire up mini DIS on the FSi. I'll bare this in mind should I turn it on and I start to get oil warnings.

I wonder why it makes a difference?

Something to do with the differences between petrol and diesel ECU's I believe. It also prevents the EPC from working.
 
I was going to ask whether it was possible to fire up mini DIS on the FSi
Mini DIS is for TDIs only. Enabling Mini DIS on petrol-powered A2s has the desired effect on the screen, but creates a software conflict in the instrument cluster. As @Bargepower says, this has some undesirable consequences.

Cheers,

Tom
 
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Originally I had assumed there would simply be no facility to enable Mini Dis on a petrol A2. I gather when you enable MDs you're telling the cluster is sitting in a (diesel) 1.2TDi. Hence I thought it was a bit of a leap (or an electronic white lie too far) to convince a petrol cluster it's still in a diesel.

With this in mind, I was surprised to see MD's apparently working in a petrol. We'll not be doing that then: thank Tom ?
 
Ok going back to my thread, as much as I love your comments ?
I have gone to the car today, checked car, low oil light on, opened service hatch, checked dipstick a couple of times, oil fine, then got back in the car, turned it off, back on and no oil light ?. I’m thinking just go down @rusty911s idea, new oil sensor.
 
Yes, I am surprised that the instrument clusters in petrol A2s even accept the Mini DIS coding, because you're effectively telling the cluster that it's in a petrol A2 and in a diesel A2 simultaneously. Hardly surprising, really, that it has knock-on consequences.
I've seen plenty of people enable Mini DIS on petrol A2s only to then fight problems. I think the word is slowly spreading that it's a TDI-only mod.

Ok going back to my thread...
Eh, yes, sorry Ian! I'd concur that a new oil level sensor is probably needed, but it's possibly a good idea to inspect the wiring to the oil level sensor before spending any money on parts. If you can't see any obvious signs of loom abrasion, etc, then we can probably conclude that the sensor has kicked the bucket.

Cheers,

Tom
 
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