8 replies to this topic

[CHARLIE530]

Right, if i go round a bend, or round a roundabout at about 30/40 my minis oil warning light comes on, but as soon as you straighten out again it goes off.

i have a minor oil leak, nothing major though, i havent been able to get it fixed, but i keep topping the oil up...

could it be the oil leak thats causing the warning light to come on?

cheers, charlie

[stickycreambun]

not really, could be low oil pressure though..

maybe you want to be finding out whats up, asap. An oil pressure gauge might be a good starting point.

[Dan]

Yes it can. The oil pickup in the sump is at a certain fixed point obviously and oil is a liquid. When it's hot it's very liquid. As you drive the oil sloshes around the sump and if the oil level is low when that happens the pickup may no longer be completely under the oil surface making it ingest some air with the oil or just air and no oil at all. This causes the oil pressure to drop and so the low oil pressure warning can certainly light up. On a Mini the oil pickup is at the front right hand side of the sump so the effect is more noticeable when turning right (like on a roundabout) as all the oil wants to move to the left hand side due to it's innertia. If you are turning right and travelling uphill at the same time then it can really hurt the pressure. This is why the central oil pickup pipe was invented, to relocate the point where the oil is collected to the centre of the sump and reduce the effect.

Keep your oil topped up and try not to drive quickly around right hand bends until you can get the leak fixed and so are sure the level is consistant.

[1984mini25]

If you insist on having fun round roundabouts then you ideally need to keep the oil toped up to the max mark to help ovoid the problem of momentarily loss of oil pressure, which isn’t good for the engine.

And don't rely on only toping up the oil when the light comes on as buy the time the pressure has dropped low enough for the light to be on it has already stated to kill the engine.

[il-barba]

mini designers should have been wiser and do it on the other side so we can still go fast around roundabouts

[Ethel]

mini designers should have been wiser and do it on the other side so we can still go fast around roundabouts

You'll just have to reverse round 'em instead!

[liirge]

mini designers should have been wiser and do it on the other side so we can still go fast around roundabouts

You'll just have to reverse round 'em instead!

rofl

[CHARLIE530]

thanks guys! except 1984mini25, who obviously likes leaving pointless statements. if you read carefully the light isnt on all the time, just when i go round roundabouts, so i dont leave the oil level to go low enough for the light to come on. im obviously not gonna do anything to harm my own engine.<<Section removed by Dan>>. yeah anyway cheers the rest of ya! il try going about 30/40 turning left, see if the light comes on, if it dont, problem sorted!!


thanks again, charlie

Edited by Dan, 21 February 2008 - 12:11 AM.
Insulting other users is unacceptable.

[Dan]

That really is a bit harsh so I've removed some of it. 1984mini25 has been here a long time and helped a lot of people, you haven't been coming here long and don't know him at all. It's very easy to misunderstand people when you only have a short typed question or reply to go by. Please be a bit more tolerant.