Leon Cupra R - Orange oil light illuminated

Adam

Adam

Adam

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18 Oct 2002
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I went to drive to the station this morning and 5 minutes into my journey the car beeped at me and the orange oil light came on. I immediately turned around and left the car at home incase I was to do any serious damage. When I got home, I checked the oil and it barely (if at all) registered on the dipstick, not good at all! The oil was topped up by a garage last month so I can't understand why it's lost so much oil! My fault for not checking it....

So am I likely to have done any damage to the car? I have the car booked in for a service at a specialist next Friday but was hoping I could buy some oil to top it up in the mean time.

The car sounds fine, infact I had to move it off my driveway so my girlfriend could give me a lift to the station and the oil light didn't come on that time. The only noticeable different was a slight flatspot at around 2k revs when I was driving it this morning/last night.
 
Hang on, you mean you don't check your oil, ever? Assuming that it won't USE oil between services, and thus not checking, is pretty stupid.

Damage to the car is a possibility, but unlikely unless you were tanking it.
 
It will probably be fine. In my experience, garages and changing/topping-up oil has been poor. IE: They haven't done it. Always check after they have worked on your car as no oil = dead engine.

As a precaution, top up the oil and leave it stood with some card/paper underneath. This will identify any leaks. You probably won't notice the orange light until the car has warmed up and the car realises there isn't sufficient oil pressure or something along those lines so don't presume the issue has gone away.
 
paradigm said:
Hang on, you mean you don't check your oil, ever? Assuming that it won't USE oil between services, and thus not checking, is pretty stupid.

Damage to the car is a possibility, but unlikely unless you were tanking it.
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Nope, my own fault I know but I have certainy learnt my lesson.

I am getting 2L of the correct oil as an interim measure before my service.

Could the flat spot/juddering at 2k revs have anything to do with this or just where the car requires a service?
 
"Flat spot" or "Juddering" isn't an indication that the car is due a service, its an indication that the engine isn't running quite right.

Get it hooked up to a VAG-COM, and see if it has logged any error codes to do with the engine (most likely fueling system, MAF, or boost related).
 
My LCR used to drink Oil. The oil light used to ALWAYS go on before the next annual service. So check it regularly. Tanked it halfway to Gatwick at 5am once after it coming on....:|
 
Ok will do, hopefully the specialists will be able to do that next week.

I'm very lucky and certainly a lesson learnt :)

And yes, it was topped up around a month ago and is now empty? Something isn't quite right.

Thanks for your help!
 
Adam said:
And yes, it was topped up around a month ago and is now empty? Something isn't quite right.
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You ASSUME that it was FULLY topped up around a month ago, but without checking the levels yourself both before and after, in reality you have no idea.

Even assuming that they topped it up to full, max to min is only 1l, easily used up if you are driving spiritedly, even with a fully healthy engine and turbo.

If your turbo seals have started to go (what milage is your car at?), then this can increase/happen noticably when only driving "normally".

Basically, a) don't assume that it was "filled", b) don't assume something is wrong, c) take more notice of your car's running characteristics in future ;)
 
Fair point although I did watch him top it up although in reality I have no idea how much he actually put in!

My car is on 46k on a 54 plate. I was bloody panicing this morning, I really though I would have a big bill coming my way. We'll see what happens when I top it up!
 
Isn't the point of the warning light just that, a warning? I can't see the point of a warning light unless it tells you you have a problem before damage is done! You will be fine as long as took action within a reasonable distance of it coming on.
 
brassd said:
Isn't the point of the warning light just that, a warning? I can't see the point of a warning light unless it tells you you have a problem before damage is done! You will be fine as long as took action within a reasonable distance of it coming on.
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I'm sure with the VAG cars the orange light is the warning light which means you need to sort it as quick as possible. The red light version of it means stop driving the car and sort it now.

That's what they were in my old A3 anyway (that was an 03)
 
You get a few oil light variations on the 1.8T's Orange light on means low oil level so top-up asap but no damage is being done, orange light flashing could mean low oil pressure / critical level so stop asap and i think you also get a solid orange light and STOP on the display for when things have really gone wrong, i've had this before :(

Might be diff on the LCR due to the dash not having the same digital display.
 
Firestar_3x said:
You get a few oil light variations on the 1.8T's Orange light on means low oil level so top-up asap but no damage is being done, orange light flashing could mean low oil pressure / critical level so stop asap and i think you also get a solid orange light and STOP on the display for when things have really gone wrong, i've had this before :(

Might be diff on the LCR due to the dash not having the same digital display.
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As was said in in the post before yours, I'm pretty sure the LCR just has an orange and red bulb for the same light. Never seen mine flash, not even when it died of oil starvation :p
 
Perhaps the bravest (read foolish) thing i've ever done in my life, switchback hairpin country road, no engine, limited steering & brakes.

1.8T's seem to be very picky, sometimes they work great but on the odd day they will stop working and flag up the VAG ownership light for no reason other than it feels the need for some money to be wasted on it.
 
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It can be quite common for vags to judder/hesitation at 2k. The VRS Fabia 2k judder is well known and the recall for a different size egr plate did not work that well and there is was called a ''they all do that'' kind of thing. There may also be a software update for your car to solve the issue there may not.

It would not be suprised if the 2k hesitaion was a cause of the egr gasket on euro4 emmisions because there was not a problem like this before...but its still worth vagcoming or checking on the VW scanner if the cause is something else.
 
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