fedefiore

Hi guys, yesterday I was driving in traffic slowly and the big ! and the oillights turned on, just for 3-4 seconds then they turned back off.
I immediatly checked for oil level, pressure and temp and all was ok,I have been driving for 2 hours and nothing turned on again and temp/pres/level indicators behave as usual.

Those have been the longest 3 seconds of my life...what do you think could have happened ????

I had my steering wheel removed and put back and since then I have the airbag light always on (as well as the big !!! mark wich i reset with the switch) the service guy told me it just need to be reset.. he did not have the right equipment I don't know just in case it might be related...the garage is a well known porsche indy and just had the car serviced and inspected for leaks (none found) a couple of weeks before this happened.

MisterRisky

The big bang comes on every time any of the other warning lights come on. After bleeding my brakes the other day I noticed that my brake juice was right at the low mark. When I drove I would, on occasion, get a brake light and a big bang. After getting the bake fluid back to normal, no more warning lights. If your gas gets low enough to trip the low fuel light you will also get the big bang. So, in short, one of the other warnings may have fired causing the big bang light.

If you are still concerned find someone with a code reader that fits your car or borrow one from here in Rennlist and read your service codes. I suspect that you will find nothing except a big ol' dollop of peace and sanity... which is nothing to sneeze at.

jimq

it would help to say where you are as someone local may have a scan tool they can hook up or lend you.

dutchcrunch

at least you know the warning system is working, what kind of oil are you running and what is the weight??

velocitylover

I've expirienced it once too, when one of my vacuum hoses slipped off and had a fairly unstable idle for a while(When idle dips below 700 rps it'll trigger ! and low oil pressure light will come on)
+1 on the oil question by Dutchcrunch if stuck in stop and go traffic and light on as a result of increased temp.

Indycam

Your oil pressure went below the set point and the computer sent out a "oil pressure low" warning ?

fedefiore

Risky : The !!! light was on toghether with the oil one.

Jimq I'm in Milano Italy

Dutchcrunch oil is sinlubit 5w/40

I just took the car for a short ride,the dipstick indicates 3/4 but might be a bit more since the engine was not fully in temprature

Thanks all for the help guys!

fedefiore

Indycam I dont' actually know what caused the lights to go on, i just saw the big !!! light and the oil light the one with the small drop in the icon,I just had the time to give a look to temp,pressure and level (all ok) and the lights turned off.

MisterRisky

I agree with what Indy mentions above. I think that oil pressure dipped for just long enough to trip the oil pressure light. The big bang always comes on if the oil light comes on .

BTW, I call it the "big bang" because in computer programming we call the exclamation mark (!) a "bang." The very first time mine came on I actually laughed out loud at the idea of a "big bang" on my dash. Pretty geeky, yeah, I know.

ga2ryc

according to my manual

when the oil is hot, the red oil pressure warning light may light briefly at idle without endangering the engine.

same thing happened to me last year, been driving for awhile, got stuck in stop and go traffic where they had cut the lanes down to one for paving.

dutchcrunch

sitting in traffic your oil temp is going to be at its highest, because of no air movement to the air cooler, its will have to get hot enough for the fan to kick on.

now i dont want to get anything started and this is just a personal suggestion. if you drive a lot in city traffic and the winter is over i would use a thicker oil like 15-40. now i do not know if that Sinlubit is synthetic or not but i would step the weght up. 15-40 is still a good oil and should stop the low oil pressure.

now there might be all kinds of people that say yeah mine comes on once in a while and its ok, forget that , the oil you are using is to thin for the weather temp you are driving in. remember your engine is only at 700-750 rpm at idle and if that oil is to thin, its like water at temperature in trafic you are not going to have the pressure you need for you engine.

i would change it, not the filter if you just had it done. has this ever happened to you before? have you changed to a diffent oil? different weight? this is not suppossed to be like this no matter what one says. its up to you and its your car so you have to use your best judgement.

Indycam

"Milano Italy"
Your car needs my help ,
I need to see your car in person and drive it around for a couple of weeks ,
please send one round trip ticket california to Milano , ASAP .

Indycam

http://www.htsinlubit.com/

dutchcrunch

owners manual page 62

lack of sufficient oil may lead to severe engine damage.

the oil pressure warning light is not an oil level indicator. the oil pressure light indicates serious engine damage may be occuring when lit, if rpms are above idle.

i did not find where it says the oil light might come on at idle speeds and it probably is in there but you have to use your common sense and think if the oil light is on, i do not care if the car is just at idle, you have no or very low pressure. Porsche is only advising you of the posibilities but you have to read between the line .

these engines are very dependent on oil, oil pressure, for cooling and lubrucation. if you have the correct oil for the temperature it will not do this, every oil is different some 10-40 might be thinner that anothers 10-40.


do not take chances with this , no worth it,

Indycam

dutchcrunch
So one jot above the set point is ok
but
one jot below is bad ?

The oil pressure sensing system might have been calibrated at the factory ,
but after a decade , I highly doubt its "in" calibration .
Pressure senders go off cal over time .
So if this were a real concern to fedefiore , he might want to put a known good oil pressure gauge on the engine and have a look see at the hot idle oil pressure .

The computer holds the oil low light on after the low oil pressure event .
The complaint was that the light was on for "3-4 seconds", and that tells me that the low oil pressure event lasted for about zero seconds .
For all we know at this point , it might have been a momentary loss of rpms that caused the momentary low oil pressure event .