Why would you need the above?


--Sam

 

to tell you exactly what your oil pressure is..........................can either make you paranoid or warn of imminent problems depending on your disposition...........

alyn

 

lol...


I am about to buy an Oil Temp Gauge, and was wondering wether i should get a Oil Pressure gauge too....

 

Both to be sure

 

...so y would you need a oil pressure gauge...?

 

Low Oil pressure is bad, your engine would blow due to oil starvation. But if you have the gauge you can see if anything is wrong before the bang.

 

so..does that mean it kind of keeps check on the oil level too...?

 

No just the pressure, but if you have low oil level then the pressure will drop slightly, but you dont really want to let your oil level get that low.

 

I thought the oil symbol on the dash came on when you needed a top up?

 

Funny story about that - my old man is an engineer for a local company (fixes cranes, lorries forklifts, cars etc), and the companies rep's have Audi A4's. One of them was speaking to my dad about how cr4p the car was, and when my dad asked why, he said, every time he starte dthe car it says "OIL" on the screen, and he puts oil into the car each time! My Dad laughed, as the cars are looked after on lease-hire, and shortly after, then engine was fubared from being over-filled with oil.

(For those that don't know, Audi's have a service light that lets you know what service is due (i.e. OIL, IN1, or IN2)!)

 

From (painful) experience with my other car - a Westfield - the oil warning light is next to useless. It comes on when the pressure is so low that it's basically telling you why the car has just died!

An oil pressure guage will show you that the system is running at a certain pressure. This should barely change when driving the car - even on sharp bends or high acceleration on track days - although it will be a bit lower (about 1bar on the Westfield) when the engine is just ticking over.

Obviously if there is a problem with the system's pressurisation (ie: a leak) the pressure will be lower than normal and you will be warned far in advance of anything really bad happening. If the oil level is low, you will see that the needle wavers around on bends as the engine fails to suck the oil out of the sump.

On my very first track day in the Westfield, I noticed the oil guage wavering around all over the place. Thinking that this must be normal under this sort of extreme useage, I ignored it. Now I have a new engine!! Basically the engine was being starved of oil and it didn't even make it home that day before it seized. The oil light never came on!


I don't need track day veterans to remind me how stupid I was! Lets just say I learned my lesson!

Kevin.