Has the head gasket blown?

jewelly

marksandsparx wrote: »

Do it!! its what you pay them for

Lol!

I've just been out to the car again and started the engine. The oil warning light isn't showing now. Confused.com. Maybe it needed more time to register that the oil had been added. I'll give it a test drive to tesco later and ring the RAC if it gives me any trouble.

Wig

Sorry to pester you but when the oil is at the max it's easy for it to be actually over the max and onto the wire and you can't see exactly how high it goes. Clean it with tissue, dip it again, and check exactly how high the oil is on the stick, you can lay it on a clean tissue to see exactly where the oil is present.

Apart from that, you say 1st time oil in three years, have there been regular oil changes?
Because I'm now thinking maybe you have an oilway blocked and that is causing the buzzing/flashing

Drain oil, fill with 2.5 litres (depending on car) flushing oil, change oil filter, 1200rpm for 15 mins, empty out.
Fill with normal (cheap) clean oil - if problem persists add a tin of oil flush additive drive for 50 miles or so change oil again.

mcjordi

Oil light is not an idication of oil level its an oil pressure light meaning its loosing pressure.. get a compression test done

Exemplar

losing pressure, not loosing...

sorry but it's a pet hate, not a personal dig.

mcjordi

bloody keyboard.. some of the letters stick

jewelly

Well, I've just done the tesco trip and all was well. It was only a short trip though. I will go out further tomorrow. I'm just not going to worry about it now unless something else happens.

Thanks all for your replies.

ScoobySnacks79_2

mcjordi wrote: »

Oil light is not an idication of oil level its an oil pressure light meaning its loosing pressure.. get a compression test done

The oil pressure has nothing to do with the cylinder pressure, so the compression test is irrelevant unless you suspect that the head gasket has failed between two cylinders, or between a cylinder and an oil way.

Which engine is it?

Sometimes the ECU will register an error which is transient, and so display an error message. However, this should show an engine management light, not the oil light.

If the HG is at fault, you will get a build up of pressure in the cooling pipes, which will stay rigid and impossible to squeeze for a while after driving (a normal engine with no HG fault will lose the pressure very quickly)

jcb208

Often you get random dash lights when the alternator fails to charge the battery,might be worth getting it checked out as you said you had the other lights on the dash as well as oil light

jewelly

jcb208 wrote: »

Often you get random dash lights when the alternator fails to charge the battery,might be worth getting it checked out as you said you had the other lights on the dash as well as oil light

It was only the oil light showing. I'll wait and see what happens. Thanks for the reply though.

Norman_Castle

The oil light continued to flash and the speedo, rev counter, petrol gauge, temp gauge all had zero readings on the dashboard. The speedo and petrol gauges worked ok after a couple of minutes

Oil level/pressure problems would not affect all guages. For reference, my oil light flashes if the car is parked on a slope. Sorts itself once I move the car.