paalw

I have to explain a bit what the story is first. It started with a small leak from the engine oil cooler (separate unit under radiator when manual gearbox), so after trying a couple of used ones that also were sipping some oil, I decided to order a factory new one and get done with it.

Unfortunately it was far from done with it.. I installed the new oil cooler and wrapped everything up. Started the engine and let it run idle for a minute or two, then drove for a small test outside the garage. after driving around 100m I turned back, and I see there are big oil marks from where i drove. Once I understood that it was actually my car leaking(it took some time because I did not expect that at all), I stopped the car, and rolled it back to the garage. When I get back to the garage I se a pretty big oil spill from where it was standing idling before I drove off.

I removed the oil cooler again and find that when blowing through one of the holes while blocking the other, it is a big internal hole in the middle somewhere, bubbling air and oil out. So, I actually got a "Dead on arrival" unit, no sign of external damage. I HOPE this has not damaged any internals in the engine. I did not hear any bad noises or anything.

Anyway. I got a new cooler once again and I have now installed it. I had to add 4.5liters of oil to get it to a good level, so that's how much I lost totally. So I figured it is a good idea to turn the engine before starting it to get oil pressure back. So I disconnect the main connector under the hot post cover and short pin 14 to hot post. Lets say I have done it 6 x 20 seconds now. Still, when turning ignition on (and no fuel pump fuse), it doesn't seem to show oil pressure. See video. Any ideas? Shouldn't it by now get the pressure up, even if the engine is not starting?

I really don't want to do something stupid here so if anyone has some good advice please let me know!

Video:

SeanR

Bertrand Daoust

Not sure but I think that no needles will go up while starting the car. Only when it's running.
Not near the car right now so can't confirm this.

Did you get a low oïl pressure warning when you lost the oil?

SwayBar

You need to run the engine to register oil pressure on the gauge.

Bertrand Daoust

Delete.

paalw

I did not get any oil pressure warnings before turning off engine. I did not check the pressure gauge either so I don't know what it read, because it was not in my mind that anything like this was about to happen. The pressure gauge has always functioned good (until now??). Can someone confirm that engine must be running to read pressure? If that's the case, then this is probably not a problem after all, and I can probably safely start it again.

DR

Please check fuse #25, it looks like you have blown a fuse for the Interior lights which also fuses the "Diagnostic" info to the cluster. Looks like it is dead from the video.

Seems to be a rash of #25s today.

Cheers,

Dave

Bertrand Daoust

If you didn't get any oil pressure warnings then everything should be good.
Like mentionned, quite sure you need to run the engine to register oil pressure on the gauge.

FredR

If you disconnected the 14 pin plug to jump pin 14 and thus crank the starter motor then you disconnected the signals for oil pressure indication and low oil pressure so how can they possibly work?

Apologies if I am missing something.

I doubt the engine could have been damaged as you would not have missed a low pressure alarm and such did not happen.

As you have already learned [I suspect] any time you play around with either the lubrication system or the fuel system you must observe the elements you played around with before moving off to ensure there are no leaks and that everything on the dash panel looks normal.

Whilst on the subject in general, In the case of work on the fuel system never start the car in the garage if you can possibly avoid it and especially so if it is a built in garage. I always have a hose pipe on standby, pressurised and ready to go at the pull of the nozzle on the gun. I have someone start the car with Fireman Fred having the hose in hand and watching the fuel rails for leaks

paalw

I have always got the red warnings in dispay before if something was wrong, if that is what you mean. But thanks I will check the fuse! Just curious, how can you see that from the video?

Reconnected pin plug and removed fuel pump fuse before turning the key.

DR

Hi,

There was something just not right with the cluster in your video, I just put that out there since it is a simple check and it seems to happen often.

Cheers and best of luck, you are in the right place to get the help you need.

Dave

Mrmerlin

fill the crankcase with oil,
then start the engine,
let it idle.

NOTE if you dont get oil pressure in 20 seconds then shut it off.
NOTE you should see indications of oil pressure in less than 5 seconds as a norm.

NOTE as obvious as it sounds after you start the engine and have oil pressure take a few mins to check for leaks

Red Flash

Or, another idea at least.

Put everything back together. Pull the fuel pump relay and crank. You will see oil pressure by this method, if everything is working.

The motor might fire was once or twice from residual fuel pressure, but I would not think that such an experiment would hurt the motor.

worf928

SwayBar

This did not work for me.