Astra Oil pressure lamp

CHange the oil pump pressure relief spring. You don't have to remove the oil pump to access it & it's a common failure on that era Vauxhaul.

Thanks for that, will phone vauxhall up and see if we can get one for after xmas. You wouldn't happen to know where it is would you?

Tim

Yep, if you look at the oil pump it's behind the large bolt on the side. It's fairly obvious if you look at the Haynes pictures of rebuilding the oil pump & you don't need to take the pump off to change it. If that doesn't cure it then you probably want to rebuild the pump. Not particularly difficult but you need to be happy changing a cambelt

Lol, that's agood one, next time i have a car that burns oil i'll say i put a few gallons of aircraft fuel in her, and that's why she's blowing oily smoke clouds :)

Aircraft fuel comes in different grades, some aircraft run on normal unleaded 95 ron, some need a higher octain, avgas used to be 100 ron, then you have the jet fuels and so on, how did he come accross this aircraft fuel i'd want to ask, and why was he runing the car on it.. i'd say the smoke puffs were from a shagged engine as he'd been trying to make it go faster by running it on a higher octain fuel :) i used to put a bottle of nitro methane in the fuel tank of my mini..when i was 17..honnest, didnt do much but made the engine run hotter and burn a valve out the last time i tried that 'trick'.. it was more for bragging rights with the other mini owners in town :)

The oil pressure warning lamp is just that.. it's telling you the oil pressure is dropping below the minimum safe level.. and when your doins speed this is not a good sign.. mind if the fuel tank has aircraft fuel in it.. could the sump have some very thin jet engine oil in her?? in an engine that's supposed to have something like 20/50 in her, putting a synthetic

when ever i get a new/secondhand car, i always do a full service.. you never know what the last owner did.. especialy if htey were a boy racer and liked doing things like experiment with different fuels and the like :)

Don't think that's the correct term. It's measuring the oil pressure, and if that drops below a certain level it comes on. Common enough on a high mileage engine at idle when it's hot, but not when it's running.

It could be a faulty switch - easy and cheap to change - or it could be some fault in the oil pump - like the pressure relief valve leaking. The only real way is to measure the actual pressure. So saying old oil and or a blocked filter can cause low pressure. As, of course, can worn bearings etc.

Only old two strokes use petrol and oil mixed. Don't think it's common with aircraft. Sounds more like a worn engine to me if it's smoking badly. If there was oil in the petrol, the smoke would be constant.

And given it's a high mileage 1.6 Vauxhall engine, the rings will be screwed anyway :-)

Pete.

Bingo :) the guy had a light aircraft that used two stroke petrol. Nice plane to. mmm, don't think it's constant, you could certainly see it when he put his foot down.

It's not that high actually 110,000 possibly getting high but I would expect more than that, a lot more than that..... Maybe not though, not if tricks like this fuel thing have been carried on for long. The guy he got it off did have it more 8 years though.

Tim

To be fair on the test drive which apparently was well over 15-20 miles there was no smoke at all.

After the test drive not much was left so he put in 10 gallons of this stuff to get him home.

:)

Thats whats concerning me. I went round this afternoon and started her up which made a bit of a strange noise just after starting for about 1 sec which was when the oil lamp went of, no blue smoke at all but didn't rev it because I think we should leave it till the oil has been changed at least. got a oil pressure relief valve on order from Vauxhall 71p's worth of bits so thought I might as well do that as well. Worst case scenario (as long as it lasts long enough) I'll do the oil pump as well. By the way the seller was an farm owner so had all sorts of stuff round there, from what I saw, a home built light aircraft & helecopter AND a few tractors. Could be anything in there :)

Yep, I do that same BUT if the car is on it's last legs it's not really worth spending that kind of money before scrapping it. Hopefully the oil/filter change will help at least.

Tim

Thanks, I've got one on order but not sure when we'll get it what with xmas and all 71p it cost... If that fixes it, it will make the car one hell of a bargain for him :)

If this doesn't fix it, I'll probably just fit a new pump, save the hassle of possibly having to do it again in the near future.

Tim

Tim Anderson wrote: [...]

Worst case scenario is the engine's shagged. Given the age, mileage and general longevity of Vauxhall engines of that age then that would be my favoured option.

John

You can get Rebuild kits From any decent engine reconditioners & they're not difficult to fit.

Well, I suppose that yes this is the worst case scenario but how many old Nova's and Astras are there out there? quite a few, possibly a lot die when getting older and putting on the miles but I wouldn't say that if they have been looked after they would all be dead. Now other than the oil lamp this is the only thing (that I can tell admitadly) that seems to be wrong with this.

This could be serious but it could just as easily be something simple.

I am willing to eat my words though if it turns out to be knackered :)

Tim

Any ideas how much these generally cost?

Many thanks for your help so far

Tim

Think I might get one on order then.... have to check with my mate but I dont think for around £17 he's going to complain if it might save his car.

I don't think it's going to be that though... he called me a couple of mins ago, stupid idiot has taken the thing out on a run (I hate it when people ignore good advice). he's been about 40 miles, I wonder which part of don't use it till I've at least done this he didn't understand? Took it out on the motorway after topping up with regular unleaded. says it's running fine and didn't see any blue smoke, hmm it's dark how could he? :) no lamp lit up at all tonight when he ran at 60 all the way so seems that the oil pressure only lessens when the car is run at speed.

I thought oil pressure increased with engine revs though? Do the oil pressure warning switches operate when pressure is to high? this is all starting to look a bit like wrong oil viscosity to me though.

Tim

Oh and when I was under the bonnet I took the rotor arm out :) not going anyway till the works done now :)

Tim

From bitter experience of old astras I'll bet the sumps full of flaky old crap that slightly clogs the oil pump pick up. Buy a new sump gasket & take it off & clean it.

Mine (Mk 2 1.6 SR) were hosed at 100k :-)

New shells, rings & gaskets, it was as good as new.

Shame the same can't be said for the bodywork.

I've never had seats as good as the Recaros in it though.

Pete.

hmm, keep your fingers crossed for him then I won't be fixing that lot and I think professional job would cost loads more than the car :(

I've heard this car described as a wardrobe with wheels :) definately no recaros in there :)

Tim