Question about the vacuum system

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Philly

Philly

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Back over the summer, I blew a valve (or something) in the vacuum system. This happened after a little stint of hard driving. This resulted in an annoyingly loud whistling and many warning lights coming on, including one that said "STOP! Oil pressure. Engine off," while the engine was clearly still running. This happened the day after the whistling started, and went away soon after it came on.

Over christmas week, we had the car in the shop because of a vacuum leak, so it is known that we had problems with it. Today, I was cruising around a cloverleaf at about 4,000 RPMs in sport mode and the "STOP! Oil pressure. engine off." light came on, while the engine was clearly still running and went away immediately after I shifted back into drive and the RPMs dropped.

So my question: Could I still have problems with the system? Could it be something more? Is it nothing? Or is the vacuum totally unrelated?
 
I would check my oil ASAP if I were you. Most likely, you're a quart low, and the high-speed trip around the cloverleaf slopped it away from the pickup for a moment, meaning your oil pressure actually did drop.
 
Checked the oil. The dipstick didn't give me any read at all. It came up a little wet the first time I pulled it out after turning the engine off but but dry every time after that.

But then the light would be on all the time. And it didn't come on after more, err, hard cornering.

I have a feeling I'm either being a total idiot or worrying about nothing again.
 
philly cheese
Checked the oil. The dipstick didn't give me any read at all. It came up a little wet the first time I pulled it out after turning the engine off but but dry every time after that.

But then the light would be on all the time. And it didn't come on after more, err, hard cornering.

I have a feeling I'm either being a total idiot or worrying about nothing again.
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Please put some more oil in your car. Now.

And I agree with Duke's diagnosis above. 👍
 
Who doesn't know about putting oil in their car and never checks it?! ;) You need to put some oil in your car, especially if it's not reading anything on the dipstick. Immediately. Unless you don't value your engine.. ;)
 
Oil done:). Apparently it was half full at the time, so that was good to hear.

It's going to be headed into the shop (again:mad:) so maybe VW can figure out why there are 2 quarts missing when the car isn't due for a change for another couple thousand miles.

Can I expect to keep having problems like this every month of so with this car forever?
 
philly cheese
... Can I expect to keep having problems like this every month of so with this car forever?
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Maybe. If it's using oil (and not blowing any ugly blue smoke) sometimes it's easier to just keep it topped up rather than the hassle and expense of fixing the problem. Depending on the age and value of your car, something like a cracked ring sometimes isn't worth fixing. :indiff:
 
If it's a 1.8T, those are not easy on oil and easily sludged up. You really need to learn to check your oil. I always do all the maintenance myself, including checking/changing the oil and it's one of the smartest & easiest things you can do to your car, in my opinion.
 
ferrari_chris
Maybe. If it's using oil (and not blowing any ugly blue smoke) sometimes it's easier to just keep it topped up rather than the hassle and expense of fixing the problem. Depending on the age and value of your car, something like a cracked ring sometimes isn't worth fixing. :indiff:
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Apparently German cars like to run burning the maximum amount of oil allowed, and the turbo certainly doesn't help. Seeing that the car is at 35,000 miles, I would think VW might replace it under warranty if that was the case?

Thirdeye
If it's a 1.8T, those are not easy on oil and easily sludged up. You really need to learn to check your oil. I always do all the maintenance myself, including checking/changing the oil and it's one of the smartest & easiest things you can do to your car, in my opinion.
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It's the 2.0T and I'm sure it can't be much easier on oil than the 1.8T. I think I will start checking the oil more often now. It's depressing that I never really learned anything about car maintenance though. I'll have to get on that.
 
I know how that feels, everything I know I've had to learn myself. My parents knew little to nothing about car maintenance and I don't know where I got the passion from. Glad you decided to learn to check the oil yourself. I think you'll even find it pretty satisfying, knowing that you won't have to rely on others as much too! :) Cheers.
 
I guess that's the deal with having a car I like so much. I don't want anything to happen to it so it is really hard when something does happen and I learn a lesson.
 
Weird, my Jetta has been having somewhat similar problems. That, I think is mostly due to something with the electronics and the wet/cold weather we've been having. MKIII models with the 2.0L 8V are known to not want to start with crappy weather, usually because of cracked distributor caps, bad plug cables, etc.

I tried starting her the other day and the low oil pressure light started blinking. She never started, so I'm waiting for the nice day tomorrow (46F and sunny) to see whats up. Assuming that she'll start, I've gotta get the oil changed STAT, and replace the distributor cap. The plugs should probably get changed too, but I don't have all the tools to do it.

Yes, with a VW you need special tools, apparently...
 
philly cheese
Apparently German cars like to run burning the maximum amount of oil allowed, and the turbo certainly doesn't help. Seeing that the car is at 35,000 miles, I would think VW might replace it under warranty if that was the case? ...
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Yeah. If the milage is that low I'd definately talk to them about it.
 
philly cheese
I have a feeling I'm either being a total idiot or worrying about nothing again.
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No, you're being a total idiot unless you put a couple quarts of oil in it right after finding the dipstick dry.

The oil light will only come on steadily when your oil pressure is practically nil. Consider the oil light to be like that thing that goes BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP when the patient flatlines, instead of the nice regular Boop... boop... boop... of a healthy heartbeat.
 
Duke
The oil light will only come on steadily when your oil pressure is practically nil. Consider the oil light to be like that thing that goes BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP when the patient flatlines, instead of the nice regular Boop... boop... boop... of a healthy heartbeat.
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Problem was: Nothing came on except that warning that lasted a second or two. I would think it would say it was unhappy if the oil was half-empty.
 
I've always found that you should never go by any sort of dash warning when it comes to oil, always use the good old dipstick 👍
 
philly cheese
Problem was: Nothing came on except that warning that lasted a second or two. I would think it would say it was unhappy if the oil was half-empty.
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That's what I'm saying - by the time the oil light comes on and stays on, you've got an excellent chance it's already too late.
 

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