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Re: Check light - Oil level - help! Posted by Ari [Email]  (#2847) [Profile/Gallery]
(more from Ari) on Mon, 3 Mar 2003 11:43:44
In Reply to: Check light - Oil level - help!, Karthik, Sun, 2 Mar 2003 12:49:52 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
As the others have said, the Check light does come on if any of the other lights, like Oil Level or Coolant come on.
The oil level switch isn't a great indicator. It measures oil level right as the engine is started, and stays latched until you shut the car off. It doesn't measure oil level once the engine is started. All it's measuring is oil level in the sump. If you start the car, shut it right off, then restart it within a few seconds, it'll quite often come on, because most of the oil is still in the engine, not in the sump.
Also, it's very common for the switch to stick. It's just a float switch stuck into the oil sump. If it becomes a real nuisance, at your next oil change, pull the switch out and clean it up. Make sure the float hasn't sprung a leak. If your oil level looks good, you can ignore the Oil Level light - it's just a crutch for those folks that never check their oil.
As to oil level, you want to keep the level at Max, and even a hair above is OK. The Oil Level light will sometimes come on even half-way between min and max. You don't want to overfill the oil, but keeping it up at Max, or a hair above, helps keep the timing chain well lubricated and happy.
As to the ABS light. First off, it's normal for the ABS and Brake Fluid lights to both come on when you first start the car. They go off after a few seconds. The amount of time they take to go off depends on a lot of things, but usually the longer the car has been sitting, the longer it takes for the lights to go off. 30 or 40 seconds isn't unusual for an older car having sat overnight. The ABS pump needs to pressurize the system, which leaks down as the car sits. Both those lights are on while the system is pressurizing.
The ABS system is continuously doing self-checks. If it detects something wrong, the ABS light will come on. If the ABS light is ON, your brakes will work fine, except you won't have ABS - it'll be just like the old, pre-ABS days.
There are a few reasons why the ABS light might come on while driving. The system continuously checks all the four sensors - the first thing it does is make sure each sensor is about the same resistance. If the cable from the sensor to the ABS box is worn, this can affect it, or if the connector is a little dirty. Sometimes just unplugging and plugging back in the connectors cleans them - I'm pretty sure they're up by the battery in the '88, but don't quote me. There are no connectors at the wheel. Since the cable from the sensor travels through the wheel well and is exposed to a lot of wheel movement and dirt, inspect the cable for wear and breaks. But they do go bad. The only solution is to replace the sensor, as the cable is integral to the sensor. If the light comes on and stays on, you can bring the car to a dealer and they can read out the codes which will tell you which sensor is bad.
The other thing the system does is check wheel speeds continously. If one wheel is going faster or slower than the others, and the brakes aren't on (and the ABS knows this), it'll flag a fault and light the ABS light. An example I've run into is on a very snowy day, one rear brake caliper hung up. That rear wheel dragged, and it could because the road was covered with snow. The ABS saw one wheel not producing a speed signal, but the brakes weren't on, so the ABS light came on. Now, I don't expect that's what happened from your mechanic, but it's possible that a wheel sensor is just on the hairy edge of giving the right signal - most of the time it's OK, but occasionally it goes over the edge. This could be a bad cable, or even sometimes metallic gunk builds up in the toothed wheel on the wheel hub that the sensor reads.
If the ABS problem goes away, great. If not, your best bet (not a great one, but such is life) is to get the codes read out by a dealer. That will at least narrow it down to one sensor instead of four.
posted by 192.249....
, Mon, 3 Mar 2003 11:43:44 <-- Viewing This Message, Mon, 3 Mar 2003 17:28:52
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