OIl pressure light wiring

[TomB]

I have a dry sump on my K, with a big orange low pressure warning light wired to the dash, as well as the standard OP gauge. Today I noticed the orange light had an intially faint glow to a moderate glow which has a slight 'pulse' to it as the revs change on the engine. The gauge was normal & there was plenty of oil in the car, so Im suspecting a wiring/ electrickery/ witchcraft issue.

 

Does anyone know how the oil pressure lamp would be wired on a 1996 car? Does it use the same sender as the gauge? Given the 'pulsing' is there a connection with the alternator wiring? I dont know where to start really, apart from checking the wiring on the main OP sender on the filter housing.

 

Edited to say all other instruments & lighting work, so I suspect an electrical issue specific to the OP light rather than a dash-wide problem like a bad earth on the main dashboard earth.

 

 

Edited by - TomB on 13 Nov 2010 22:44:20

[SLR No.77]

Tom, IIRC on the 1400 cars the VDO sender was combined "gauge pressure sender" and "low pressure switch", with 2 output wires. Can't help any further I'm afraid

 

Stu.

[alan7]

Tom, the oil pressure warning light switch is a black & yellow wire if that helps

 

How do you get the dead flies off your teeth....... 😬 R5AAH

[TomB]

Im going to be taking the scuttle off the car in a couple of weeks which may help track down any wiring issues. Where does the black & yellow wire go from? Does the dial & light share the sender? I remember when building the engine I changed the sender - it was different to the 'standard' wet sump sender in that ISTR it had two contacts rather than one. Is one for the dial & one the light?

 

I remember I once had a loose connection on the sender and the dial jumped around all over the place. I had kittens until I crawled under the car and found the loose connections!

[Paul Richards]

Tom as Stuart says it's a combined sender with one wire for the gauge and one for the light. It may be the sender, or from the way you describe, it could just be a bad earth.

 

Paul Richards

Area Representative - L.A.D.S. (Lancashire and District Sevens)

LADS Website

Growing old is compulsory - Growing up is optional

[SLR No.77]

IIRC the low pressure wire, which is also sometimes used for the temp signal from the Apollo (or as in my car it has been used for the dry sump belt warning switch) is actually yellow/black, not black/yellow (ie. yellow wire black tracer).

 

Stu.

[Ian B]

Sounds like a classic earth fault

 

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Ian - Slightly Vider SVelte SuperVeloce model 😬 - Joint AR for North Kent - Area details and calendar here

[TomB]

I wondered about an earth as it glows nearly all the time, but as too where it could be Im not so sure. As there are no other faults on the dash, I dont expect the dash earth to be a problem. Would the sender be earthed through the main chassis earth near the RHS front suspension?

 

I need to off road the car soon and get crackin on the multitude of little jobs, but working in a car port in the dark and cold isnt as appealing as it once was. I mus tbe getting old!