Intermitant low oil warning on Xantia ?

Mandrake · Post by **Mandrake** » 07 Aug 2005, 12:18

Hi All,
Both my Dad's 1994 SX and my 1997 VSX intermitantly report low oil when starting the engine - eg a 15 second flash of the oil light when starting the engine, and yet the oil level is fine in both cars, in fact in mine its slightly above maximum.
Both engines are the 2.0i 8 valve petrol. This might happen in 1 out of 5 starts or less.
Q: will it flash if the oil is too high as well as too low ?
Q: is this likely to be a wiring problem like a wire shorting to earth, or is it more likely to be the sensor itself ?
Is this one of those common Citroen electrical gremlins ? [:D]
Also my VSX has the oil temperature guage on the right, but I've never seen it go over 50 degrees before, usually it sits on around 45 degrees (which is only half a notch above the bottom of the range of the guage) is this likely to be correct, or is the guage telling me lies ? [:D]
Yet another gremlin, on two occasions after driving on a country road, the red warning light has briefly come on on the top corner of the water temperature guage, (together with the main STOP light) and yet the guage was only reading a normal figure of 80 degrees at the time..... ??
At what temperature is that warning light supposed to activate, and how could it be activating when the guage below it is reporting a normal temperature ? Needless to say, water level etc is all fine, and the fans operate correctly if the temperature ever reaches 90, which it only ever does after stopping at traffic lights after some hard driving...
Regards,
Simon

zzf00l · Post by **zzf00l** » 07 Aug 2005, 12:37

I also get the intermitant 'low oil' warning on start up, I can even make this happen by parking with nearside front and rear up on the curb,,,, like yourself... plenty of oil with quality filter etc. Must be citroen electrics again!

xantiav6 · Post by **xantiav6** » 07 Aug 2005, 12:40

On my previous 2.0 8V, I had the flashing oil light, despite the level being correct. It seemed to happen in winter, and went away if I changed the oil, so I think that it may be that the level sensor is also sensitive to contamination.
On my 2.0, the oil temperature guage rarely got over 50, around town, but when driving on the motorway it seemed to settle at about ambient plus 60. The oil temperature is not regulated, so does vary a lot depending on how hard the engine is working. On the V6, the oil temperature runs around 90 +/- 20.
The temperature warning light is apparently driven by the engine management ECU, so can come on for reasons other than guage temperature. It may be that it comes on due to a detected problem with the engine management temperature sensor, or even the cooling fans (if A/C fitted).

johnlyn · Post by **johnlyn** » 07 Aug 2005, 12:40

My 1.9TD does exactly the same with the oil light & i have put it down to either gremlins or a faulty switch or connection.
John

jeremy · Post by **jeremy** » 07 Aug 2005, 14:26

The first question is 'What really is the oil level?' On the XUD the dipstick is in the middle of the car and if you check the oil with the car parked at the kerb in England it will of course read high as the engine is tilted and the oil will run towards the middle of the car. Park it on the other side of the road and it will read low.
From our experience with the ZX 1.9D the sensor would seem to be a bit more sensitive than the dipstick and will operate if the oil level is getting low.
Generally these engines don't use much oil so keeping the levl on the full mark shouldn't be much hardship.
Jeremy

Mandrake · Post by **Mandrake** » 07 Aug 2005, 14:36

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by xantiav6

On my previous 2.0 8V, I had the flashing oil light, despite the level being correct. It seemed to happen in winter, and went away if I changed the oil, so I think that it may be that the level sensor is also sensitive to contamination.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
Ok thanks for the tip, I'll probably be doing an oil/filter change soon as there was no history of when the last change was when I bought the car.
<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">
On my 2.0, the oil temperature guage rarely got over 50, around town, but when driving on the motorway it seemed to settle at about ambient plus 60. The oil temperature is not regulated, so does vary a lot depending on how hard the engine is working. On the V6, the oil temperature runs around 90 +/- 20.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
Ok, so 45 to 50 sounds reasonable then. I havn't driven it on a motorway yet (I'm 100Km from the nearest motorway [:D]) so we'll see what it reads next time I do...
<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">
The temperature warning light is apparently driven by the engine management ECU, so can come on for reasons other than guage temperature. It may be that it comes on due to a detected problem with the engine management temperature sensor, or even the cooling fans (if A/C fitted).
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
Ahh... Ok. I wonder if that will be logged as a fault code in the ECU ? I suppose I should be reading up on how to extract codes from the ECU...
Regards,
Simon

Mandrake · Post by **Mandrake** » 07 Aug 2005, 14:38

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by jeremy

The first question is 'What really is the oil level?' On the XUD the dipstick is in the middle of the car and if you check the oil with the car parked at the kerb in England it will of course read high as the engine is tilted and the oil will run towards the middle of the car. Park it on the other side of the road and it will read low.
From our experience with the ZX 1.9D the sensor would seem to be a bit more sensitive than the dipstick and will operate if the oil level is getting low.
Generally these engines don't use much oil so keeping the levl on the full mark shouldn't be much hardship.
Jeremy
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
Hi Jeremy,
Thanks for the suggestions, but the oil level is above the high mark, as mentioned, and checked on level concrete inside a garage, so no possibility of it actually being low due to sloping ground etc.
I guess I'll just put it down to gremlins or an overactive sensor for now...also if the car is parked on sloping ground theres no reason why the sensor might not be fooled in the same way as the dipstick. (Mind you it also does it on level ground sometimes)
The annoying thing is that because the light cries wolf on a regular basis, the one time it is actually right I wont believe it... [}:)]
Regards,
Simon

Clogzz · Post by **Clogzz** » 07 Aug 2005, 17:54

http://www.aussiefrogs.com/forum/showth ... ght=litres
The french site 'Planète Citroën' shows a factory recall and modification and replacement of the temperature sensor that operates the cooling fans and dash 'STOP' and 'overheat' lights.
The site allows for translation into several languages, but the result looks like pidgin English.
I'll explore and post if there's any interest.
http://www.andyspares.com/discussionfor ... C_ID=14813

pete_wood_uk · Post by **pete_wood_uk** » 08 Aug 2005, 13:46

I think that the flashing oil light is a common problem - mine does it too from time to time (and not just when it' "explicable" by being parked on a slope). Citroen Electrics!
Pete

Homer · Post by **Homer** » 09 Aug 2005, 01:39

It's not just the Xantia.
I had a BX which would do the same thing. Both my Xantias would show low oil for no reason and even my 18 month old Peugeot 807 will flash empty after a cold start when it is up to the top line.

basil40 · Post by **basil40** » 09 Aug 2005, 21:12

I've had that problem for about two years now. IT's the oil level sensor gone faulty - not worth bothering about - just use your dip stick!

ktaylor21662 · Post by **ktaylor21662** » 09 Aug 2005, 21:33

Mine also. Must be a common problem.

splat · Post by **splat** » 10 Aug 2005, 18:00

Mine has always done this. My sensor isn't faulty in the sense that it always sees a low oil condition if one exists, it's just that it incorrectly reports a low oil condition sometimes when there isn't one.
The two situations that sometimes give me a false warning are:

1) Parked on a slope
2) Restarting after a long hard run (eg after refuelling on the motorway)