Very cold days sets off oil light

[daveyonthemove]

Over the last few days (hard frost etc) my car has decided that it's out of oil. It isn't out of oil, in fact its not even low, but the red oil light flashes continuosly and i get a "Beep" when it starts flashing.
On a day when the temps are mild or warm this won't happen, so its got to be related to the cold.
Doe's anyone have this problem or a solution? Getting to the dealers is tricky so if i can pinpoint the problem i could either sort it myself, or see if VW will have a look at it under warranty.
All advice is welcome.
(its an FR TDI BTW)

 

[Mitchy]

You are aware your car does not have an oil gauge and no way of telling if you are out of oil etc

It has a red oil can warning light on the centre instrument panel that may light up if you have an oil pressure problem.

I think you are referring to the most common known vag fault that has been discussed on here in about 1 billion threads

Try a searchy

BTW..Your coolant is low

 

[Timmyboy]

Thought I'd spare you the search, only because I had the same problem and fixed it last weekend - a week of freezing temperatures, car iced each morning and NO BEEP

More than likely the metal prongs which do the sensing in the coolant bottle are covered in crap - very quick solution is to take the top off the expansion tank (where you'd usually fill it up), get a long flat bladed screwdriver - take a look inside and you'll see (if it's similar to a LC anyway) 2 metal rods which go from the eletrical connector bit outside, through the case and into the coolant - give them a good scrape up and down the length of each prong and you're good to go.

Worked for me anyway, and countless others.

 

[lil3520]

have had no problems with my car

- 7 last night, drove home ok at 1.00am
-7 this morning, drove to work ok at 6.30am

 

[daveyonthemove]

You are aware your car does not have an oil gauge and no way of telling if you are out of oil etc

It has a red oil can warning light on the centre instrument panel that may light up if you have an oil pressure problem.

I think you are referring to the most common known vag fault that has been discussed on here in about 1 billion threads

Try a searchy

BTW..Your coolant is low

Coolant level is bang on the line. I described the oil light as that was the only indication i had and (rightfully) assumed someone else might have had the same and could relate to it. And the most common topics on this site are normally answered with "MAF", or relate to wooshy dump valves for your LCR boys! But your post was more than helpfull so cheers.

 

[daveyonthemove]

Thought I'd spare you the search, only because I had the same problem and fixed it last weekend - a week of freezing temperatures, car iced each morning and NO BEEP

More than likely the metal prongs which do the sensing in the coolant bottle are covered in crap - very quick solution is to take the top off the expansion tank (where you'd usually fill it up), get a long flat bladed screwdriver - take a look inside and you'll see (if it's similar to a LC anyway) 2 metal rods which go from the eletrical connector bit outside, through the case and into the coolant - give them a good scrape up and down the length of each prong and you're good to go.

Worked for me anyway, and countless others.

Cheers mate. I'll give this a go when i get to work and hope it does the job.

 

[daveyonthemove]

Got up a bit earler this morning and tried the suggested method above. Temp read -6 and the problem never occured after the prongs were cleaned off.

 

[Timmyboy]

Another one for the 'it worked' camp

Congrats.

 

[jonjay]

Worked for me aswell!

 

[lc_allan]

Davey in non search cold start beep shocker

Mods please make this a sticky

J/K

 

[UncleFester]

Well searching for an oil light when it's in fact a coolant sensor warning won't help Not that i know anything about making such a stupid error of course

 

[andycupra]

oh and it was 3 beeps i expect.

 

[daveyonthemove]

So for future reference should i search:
Oil light that actually means coolant?
BEEP on cold start, but actually beeps 3 times?
No oil gauge but red light indicates there might be?
or should i take a pot luck guess and click on any of the topics on the forum as there is over a billion of them with this answer in so the odds are pretty good on me finding it?
Alternatively i'll just continue to try and find the answer i need, and then ask someone for help like i always do....

 

[Jonesy]

So for future reference should i search:
Oil light that actually means coolant?
BEEP on cold start, but actually beeps 3 times?
No oil gauge but red light indicates there might be?
or should i take a pot luck guess and click on any of the topics on the forum as there is over a billion of them with this answer in so the odds are pretty good on me finding it?
Alternatively i'll just continue to try and find the answer i need, and then ask someone for help like i always do....

or you could have looked here

It must be groundhog day

.

 

[daveyonthemove]

or you could have looked here

It must be groundhog day

.

Lovely
Oh well, now i know what the problem is i will know what to type when i search. The only downfall there was i didn't know the problem (hence the question at the top)
Thanks anyway to all those that helped, its saved me the hassle of booking the car in for a day when i can sort it myself in 2 mins

 

[Jonesy]

Lovely
i can sort it myself in 2 mins

I'd keep that to yourself fella

 

[UncleFester]

I sorted it in even less time than that, now i know it's just an idiot light for the contents of the coolant bottle, i'll do a manual check if i see it again and promptly ignore it! I had an experimental scrape of the prongs but after 2 seconds thought f*** that. They didn't look dirty in the first place, i just think it's another of the cars 'quirks'

 

[Timmyboy]

Not necessarily - my coolant level was spot on perfect and the metal probe thingies were a nice and shiny metal colour with no obvious crap covering them - scrape did the trick however.

 

[UncleFester]

Depends how you define quirk, strange that it only seems to cause problems in prolonged cold spells - we've had cold snaps before and it hasn't done it until now. I actually wonder whether some dielectic grease on the prong ends that go into the plug would be a better idea - it might be a loose contact / poor conductivity that causes it.

If it was just dirty prongs / limescaled then it should fail irrespective of the temperature outside. Maybe it's a thing with VW coolant that it looses the ability to conduct between the prongs during very cold weather?

In fact the more i think about it the more i'm convinced it's the contact between the prongs and the plug - you effectively scrape that when you pull it off to check it which would make scraping the prongs a red herring?

 

[Timmyboy]

slightly embarrassing to admit (but I will anyway ) - the first time I read about scraping these prongs, I automatically assumed it was the ones on the contact with the plug (e.g. outside the coolant bottle) and was pissed off when, some scraping later, it didn't fix it. Only spotted the long prongs when peering into the bottle itself - idiot

Here's the other thing I find strange - it's a well known fact that switching the car off and back on again (even hours later, or straight away) you don't get the beep - unless it's clever enough to only warn you once in a 24 hour period or something, unlikely though.