Oil pressure light on a 2001 Mini One

phil675

phil675

phil675

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Joined
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Hello all,

Sister calls me today to say the oil pressure light on her 2001 Mini One has been coming on and off for the last week :rolleyes:. She is incapable of checking the oil level herself so I grab 5L of oil and have a look. The dipstick is at the half way point, so I just topped it up, started the engine and left it for minutes, the oil light stays on.

It's desperate for an oil change anyway, it's not had one since she bought it in the summer and god knows when the last one was, so I've ordered a filter and will be doing it ASAP, perhaps the filter (paper type) is clogged to buggery.

Is there anything I can check to get the light to go away? We're all skint at the moment so I'd rather not go to a garage just yet.
 
If you've put sufficient oil in it (the first check), and the light is still coming on, the next thing to check is that the pressure switch isn't playing up.

They're not typically expensive - on EuroCarParts you're looking at ~£35 for a genuine one, and ~£8 for an OE quality one.

It'll take you no longer than half an hour to swap this out, and you can then eliminate a dodgy pressure switch - if it still continues to light up the oil pressure light - you can then look elsewhere.

I had the oil pressure light flickering on my Legnum - fitted a new switch and all's good :)
 
Ordered a switch for £8. What does low oil pressure sound like? Incredibly obviously bad bag'o'spanners noises? It sounded fine when I started in earlier.
 
if the light has come on that's usually indicating that there's very low or no oil pressure so that. Topping up with oil wouldn't solve it if some things clogged/oil pump failing.
 
Dogbreath said:
Does it only come on at idle, and go out if you increase the engine RPM, or does it stay on all the time irrespective?
Click to expand...

She says it comes on for about 30 secs, off again, on again for ~30 secs. Seems to go off when she gets faster. Her input is awfully vague and unreliable though, I've told her not to drive it until I have a better look at it.

The sensor/wiring thing seems to be a fairly common issue after browsing the mini2.com forums for a bit, hopefully that's the issue. If its an electrical problem somewhere that sounds like a ballache, I suppose a pressure test would be sensible if replacing the sensor and oil filter makes no difference.
 
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Giving a warning when you go faster is indicative of a blocked oil pump ie when the oil thins out due the the raised oil temp the pressure drops
 
So I got a new sensor and an oil filter last week, tried to change them without the use of a 27mm deep socket and a 36mm shallow socket, failing miserably. I ordered the correct tools and managed to get it done today, the light went out with the new oil sensor and the oil and filter was changed. The hardest part was getting the oil sump nut off. Hurrah! :D
 
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