I have to say right off the bat that I'm a beginner at fixing cars and, having little money, if there's something I can fix myself I'd rather do it then spending the money to take it to the shop.
My problem is that I have an 85 VW GTI with about 208k miles on it and a pretty good engine still. A while ago I took it to Sears to get an oil change and everything seemed fine. Then I took it in to get a new Temp Sensor and some other thing that delt with timing cause my temp light was coming on and it was idling and running rough when not warm. Everything was fine after that, I went to Sears again to get my coolent changed for winter. Everything still fine. Then about a week later my coolant light starts coming on again but goes away after being warmed up. Then a week after that my oil light is now coming on.
I have to say I've never even checked my oil on this car since I've owned it and have only taken it to Jiffy Lube or Sears. So I'm thinking maybe my oil is low so I go try to check it and it's hard to find the dip stick. I finally find the only thing that looks like a dip stick with a hook to pull it out under the oil pan. It's this curvy like an 'S' with a third curve only not as curvy and there is no oil on the thing whatsoever and I can't see any numbers or lines to say where the right oil level is so I wonder if it's the right dip stick.
Something else I notice is that the dip stick top that is the plastic tube around it is broken. Does this affect oil pressure? I'm not sure when it broke or if it was always broken.
Then I think, well I'll unscrew the cap that has a picture of the oil can on it and look to see if there is any oil. I unscrew it and look and it seems like there is plenty of oil cause it's maybe full with like 1/2 inch of space left. It looked kinda dark and sludgy, although I looked at it in a Garage at night so it could just be that.
So I'm at a complete loss. My temp sensor seems to be behaving mostly now, but the darn oil light comes on and off when I drive.
Any ideas?