Vectra Oil Light?

Hi All
My 2004 Vectra, 1.8 Energy passed it's M.O.T first time last week, but today
the oil light came on - I checked the oil and it was a bit low, so I put
some oil and I no longer get the warning light. There is no obvious leaks
and no oil stains visible when I move the car from my driveway or it's usual
spot at work, but I am a little concerned...The car drives vey smoothly and
has been serviced every 20k miles as that's what vauxhall recomend. Current
mileage just over 72k. My friend tells me that this is not all that unusual,
but I had vauxhalls in the past and never had this problem. If I take it to
vauxhall's, they are bound to find something wrong and something expensive,
hehe...If they just do diagnostic test on their computers, would that get to
the bottom of the issue? Do they check oil when they do M.O.T.s?
Cheers, George

 

Hi George, mine is the same it did not require a top up between services
until a just before the third service, I`ve just put some in with 4000 to go
before the fourth service. about half a litre each time was enough. Nothing
to worry about I`d say.

B

 

Oil level is not part of the MOT. It is up to you to check underbonnet
levels between services.

I recommend checking the levels & tyre pressures at least monthly/
1,000 miles as they can go down.

Tyres can obviously get slow punctures as well as sudden failure,
screen wash won't normally last between services and oil can often
need a litre or more between services.

Checking levels also means you would notice coolant, power steering
fluid or brake fluid leak before it gets dangerously low.

Alan

 

My Signum manual says that all the engines may use up to 0.6 litres of oil
per 1000 miles. On another page it also says if you need to top up more
than a litre between oil changes that you should reduce the oil change
interval from 30,000 miles to 20,000 miles. I would have though that if you
were replacing oil at 0.6L/1000 miles, you would not need to change the oil
at all!

ISTR my old shape vectra manual said 1L/1000 miles. I have not had either
go below the MIN line or put the warning light on.

I don't think your oil is checked on the MOT.

Bob

 

Have you really had a car for 72k miles and only just checked the oil level
after a warning light??
What of your weekly/monthly checks !
Modern cars don't need much in the way of interim maintenance but please.
MOTs checking oil ???????? Be real, but thank goodness your car has now had
a check of sorts.
Prompt to self- don't buy off anyone who can't remember when they last
checked their oil.

 

Thanks for your comments, Alan. But surely that's why there are warning
lights for most of these??

 

In message 46bafad1$,

Not sure if you are being sarcastic here, but...
The warning lights are generally to let you know the situation is fairly
critical!
It's a better idea to check these things, and prevent them from getting to
that stage.
Also, what happens if the bulb in your low brake fluid warning light
fails...

 

To reinforce that, the oil light is not a 'low oil level warning
light' it is a 'low oil pressure' warning.

The two are very different. The first would warn you to put half a
litre of oil in while the the second would warn you to stop the engine
immediately before a catastrophic oil starvation happens!

Think of it as a coolant light. Do you check the radiator/coolant
level occasionally or do you wait for the overheating warning to come
and for the engine to seize?

Alan

 

In message ,

On the subject of oil pressure warnings...
The other day, my oil light flashed on as I was taking a sharp right turn at
speed (actually going round a small roundabout). The light only came on for
about one second, and hasn't come back since. Oil level seems to be low end
of acceptable range...
Any suggestions?

Astra 1.6 early R-Reg (older shape)

Thanks.

 

Make 3 lefts in place of each right until you top the oil up.

Bob

 

Put more oil in, the G force of your turn forced the oil in the sump away
from the pick up.

Cheers

D