Help - Oil light coming on !

The message from "--Tom--" contains these words:

Dipstick.

Maybe check the oil level ?

------------------------------------------------- Ted Rubberford. 'The Man In The Red Latex Skintight Hood'

The message from "Teddy Rubberford" contains these words:

'Ere - 'e's not Peter MacPinking in disguise is he?

No, he mentioned driving at 70 mph.

In news:41e6e902$0$47790$ snipped-for-privacy@ptn-nntp-reader02.plus.net,

--Tom-- decided to enlighten our sheltered souls with a rant as follows

Sounds like low oil pressure when the engine is hot.

I'd recommend that you give your car a good oil flush, some good oil, and a new filter.

If the engine has done quite high mileage, say 130k+ and isn't making any nasty noises, I'd just change the oil and filter, maybe putting some slightly thicker but decent quality oil in. Low oil pressure in these circumstances isn't the end of the world.

If, on the other hand, it's a newish engine and it's been serviced properly. I'd start to worry about the bottom end.

The message from "Pete M" contains these words:

To me it sounds like the oil's low. That's why it comes on when he brakes - the oil's sloshing forwards and starving the pump intake.

Thanks for replies. Checked oil and its lower than the minimum level.

This is peculiar as it wasonly serviced with fresh oil and filters in sept

2. I will fill it with 1ltr of fresh thick oil as per advice from the group first thing tomorrow morning before I set off to work and drop it into the local garage to identify where the oil has "gone" as it shouldn't be so low, should it?

Any other advice as to where the oil might be dissappearing to, as I park in the same spot outside my house every day, and there are never any oily marks around/underneath/nearish to my parking spot.

Thanks all!

A dipstick is a problem? Mike.

The message from "DervMan" contains these words:

Ah - though he might be in disguise, had you thought of that?

The message from "g00se" contains these words:

That would depend on how old the car is, what it is, and how you drive it. You ain't told us much - so it may be that you've done 10,000 miles at motorway speeds in a Morris Minor.

For any sort of Alfa that would be good - for mine any oil consumption between 8000m changes would have me looking puzzled.

Might be easier if you didn't start a new thread each time though!

The message from "Mike G" contains these words:

Possibly - but it may also be the solution as well. Depends on how you view someone who hasn't checked the oil for a few months and still doesn't when the oil light is coming on.

(sorry, have a thing at work winding Alpha owner up over various bits that fell off over first 12 months of ownership)

In news:41e70d17$0$16573$ snipped-for-privacy@news-text.dial.pipex.com, Mike Dodd decided to enlighten our sheltered souls with a rant as follows

Alfa. HTH

I'd recommend using the correct oil rather than "thick oil" - the problem is lack of oil not lack of viscosity....

When did you last check and fill it? I check mine daily but that's because I seized an engine once which piddled all its oil out one lunchtime.....

Out the exhaust. Most cars will burn oil regardless of age - some more than others.

My Rover drank about a half litre every 10k, the Mondeo had about a quarter litre every 10k. The A-series powered piece of crap that most people wouold recognise as a Metro went through 5 litres every 1000 miles - stop and fill tank with petrol, engine with two litres of oil. Came with a built in smokescreen. Once I swapped the engine for a 1.1 it got a lot better - litre in maybe three or four thousand miles.

WTF do you think your local garage are going to tell you that will be of any benefit? Tell you what. Send me the £40 instead and I'll tell you your car uses a bit of oil and you need to check it and refill it on a regular basis like the owners manual tells you to.

-- Dave Baker - Puma Race Engines

I would speculate that the garage didn't put the proper amount of oil in in the first place.

If this car can survive without the oil level being checked for more than three months then I'd say it's doing bloody well. Wouldn't like to guess how long it's likely to carry on doing so well, though.

Mike G ( snipped-for-privacy@tiscali.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

I assumed it was an insult...

DervMan ( snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

The decimal point went awol.