oil warning light and irratic speedo needle

bristol_bb4 · Post by **bristol_bb4** » Sun Mar 10, 2013 7:37 pm

Just driven the lude to the cineme (3 miles of motorway) and upon arriving I noticed the car was stuggling to idle smoothly, every now and then the revs dip to 500 and the oil light flashes and at the same time the speedo needle flicks from 0 to 100 and back?? It runs fine other than that and vtec'd as usual on the motorway!

The oil light flicked on once a few weeks ago while I was turning hard at speed which turned out to be a slightly low oil level but topped up and all was fine!

This was the first time driving it since fitting my newly coated valve cover, could it be that the earth strap on the side of the valve cover has a poor connection? I'm sat in the cinema now baking my brain over it and that's the only electrical problem I can think of it being? Other than that, oil pump? But why would the speedo flicker and revs dip?

Worried about driving it home now

Any advice would be great

stk prelude · Post by **stk prelude** » Sun Mar 10, 2013 7:40 pm

check your earthing.. its most likely that if the oil level is fine.

89 UKDM BA4 4WS (resto job!) · Post by **wurlycorner** » Sun Mar 10, 2013 7:58 pm

Film not much cop then?

Oil level being slightly low is unlikely to bring on the oil light, as it's oil pressure driven (going down even to minimum on the dipstick wouldn't cause low enough oil pressure to bring on the light under normal road driving) so it would have to be REALLY low to cause that, or combined with really thin oil, or really really hard driving, or a genuine oil pressure problem (oil pump, big ends etc).

If none of those are true, it does sound like an electrical engine management problem, e.g. dodgy farthing or something that affects idle.

Has the battery light come on at all at the same time?

bristol_bb4 · Post by **bristol_bb4** » Sun Mar 10, 2013 10:25 pm

lol that OZ film! not bad actually

nope no battery light, just got home and it cut out a few times while reversing into my parking space, im fairly positive its an electrical thing because it started back up with no drama, no odd noises and it runs fine on the motorway

ill drop the oil and check my sump plug just incase, i moved the earth strap from the rocker cover to a near by bolt but the problem persists

stk prelude · Post by **stk prelude** » Sun Mar 10, 2013 10:28 pm

check your battery connection..?

Post by **4thgenphil** » Sun Mar 10, 2013 10:44 pm

newkid wrote:Get a volt meter on the battery and check the current your getting from the alternator. Seems the cold weather has killed a few. Worthwhile checking the battery also.

What she said

Post by **NafemanNathan** » Sun Mar 10, 2013 10:47 pm

Have they powdercoated over the connection terminal on the valve cover then? If so, the earth is purely relying on the bolt which could be a crap conductor. If they have, you should definitely scrape off the paint to reveal bare metal under the connection.

bristol_bb4 · Post by **bristol_bb4** » Thu Mar 14, 2013 5:42 pm

battery seems okay, my afc neo says its at 14v with the engine on and the little indicator thingy on it is green.

ive scraped off the ground terminal so its metal on metal now and its still doing it!

when the car is just sat still idling the speedo needle is really erratic along with intermittent oil light flashes and when i turn the steering wheel the engine almost cuts out?! really starting to get annoying now

Post by **NafemanNathan** » Thu Mar 14, 2013 8:45 pm

@PerformanceAutoworks

I think that's the easiest thing

Post by **indigolemon** » Thu Mar 14, 2013 8:47 pm

Dodgy needles is, in my experience, almost always the earth strap onto the gearbox. Is it OK?