My little car that I’ve had for 5 years is a bit sick.
On Monday I noticed the oil light came on so I popped to the garage and bought a litre of oil, all I could afford. I put this in straight away but when I got home the oil light was still on.
The next day I put another litre in, which I pinched of my dad. This morning on the way to work the oil light came on again.
Now I have a few questions that some of you may be able to help me with.
How much oil should I be putting in to it? It’s a 1.1l fuel injected engine.
It’s not leaking, I’ve checked. So even after putting 2l of oil in why is the light still coming on? Surly the light should have come on 2l ago. There’s no way a 1.1l engine uses up 2l of oil in about 10 miles.
My heater has stopped working as well, only since I’ve had this oil problem. Has it got anything to do with my lack of oil in the engine? (The blowers still work but hot air isn’t coming out.)
Have you looked at the dipstick to see how much oil is in the engine? You should fill it to the full level on the dipstick.
Note that you should let the car sit for a bit after shutting the engine off before you check the oil level, to allow oil to settle back into the oil pan.
If it’s truly consuming a liter of oil per day, it’s either leaking it or burning it. Does the car smoke?
And have you changed the oil and filter recently?
The heater problem may be a stuck heater bypass valve not allowing hot water to circulate through the heater. One simple test for that would be to drive the car until the engine is warm and then turn on the heater - engine temperature should drop a bit. You’ll have to have a temperature guage to do that.
Short answer - Look at the dipstick. Do this after the engine has been off for a couple minutes, that gives the oil time to go drain to the pan and give you an accurate reading.
How much oil does it hold? Look in the manual. If you don’t have the manual, call the dealer or a parts store. They may look it up for you if they have the reference.
The oil light coming on doesn’t necessarily mean its low on oil. Its reading a low pressure situation. It could be low oil. It could be a bad oil pump. It could be a plugged sending unit. It could be a bad sending unit (this happens more than you think).
Check the dipstick for the level. If its good, either take it to a mechanic or a competent friend.
BTW - Change your oil every few months if you don’t have a regular schedule. Its cheap engine insurance.
Perhaps the oil light is an oil temperature light? The fact that your heater stopped working concerns me, as that could be a sign that you are very low on coolant, which would cause your engine to run hot and increase oil temperature.
Sometimes I’m thick. No I haven’t checked the dipstick, I’ll do it tonight.
The car isn’t smoking so it’s not disappearing that way.
The filter was changed on its last service, about 1 and a half years ago.
I haven’t got a heat gauge on my dash to tell the temp. Can someone tell me how car heaters work? Is it water from the radiator? If so maybe that needs filling up.
From what I know, (which sometimes ain’t much ), this tells me that your coolant is low. Is the engine overheating? If not, is the operating temperature getting up to normal? Low coolant or overheating can both cause the heater not to work. If the engine is extremely overheated, the oil light can come on, but you would notice the overheating before the light came on, so that is probably not it.
My best advise would be to take it to a mechanic to have it diagnosed. What kind of car is it. From my experience, most small cars hold up to 4 quarts of oil (roughly 3.7856 liters). I drive a Geo Metro that has a 1 liter 3 cyl. engine and it holds 4 quarts, just as an example. However, the problem may be something as simple as it’s still a little low on oil (when was the last time the oil was changed?) or it may be a bad sending unit (tells the oil light to come on) or it may be more serious. These are just a few guesses, but I would take it to a mechanic
It’s a Fiat & I really dont like they they require special tools. Besides, in my opinion, you should change the oil about every four months or 3-5000 miles & you said a year & a half? You got to change that oil pronto. Don’t just add oil, change it & that filter too.
If it has been that long ago, get the oil and filter changed as soon as you can. It should be done, as a general rule, every 3000 miles or 3 months, whichever comes first. (This time line is open to debate, but 1 1/2 years is way too long.)
[crash course on heaters]
On liquid cooled vehicles, engine coolant is used. You have a small “radiator” type thing (this is NOT you main radiator) called the heater core. It fills up with the hot coolant and a fan blows air through it (your heater fan). Voila! Warm air. You also have a heater control valve that controls the flow of coolant to your heater core. That could also be bad. If you are low on coolant it could also do the same thing.
[/crash course on heaters]
I have never seen a car without a temperature gauge but I am not familiar with Fiats so I will not even guess.
Stupid question, how do you know its your oil light? Does it actually say oil?
If you’ve been able to drive the car for days with the oil light on it’s probably nothing serious. Usually when the light comes on your engine life is counted in minutes and you should pull over right away and shut the car off. If it’s showing OK on the dipstick and the radiator is full and you don’t have a temperature light that’s on, it may be just the sending unit for oil pressure. If you really have lost all oil pressure your engine would be a clunking piece of red hot iron by now.
It’s a red light below that is a small picture with a vertical line and 3 horizontal lines through it. The first one is the longest and the get gradually smaller.
Hmm. That symbol is unfamiliar to me. Usually oil symbology is shaped like a can or something, but then again I am not familiar with Fiats. It almost sounds like a temerature “scale” or maybe a picture of a radiator, but thats just a guess.
Is that a widely known standard symbol for Oil in those cars or are you just guessing that it stands for oil?
That really sounds like the temperature symbol to me. I don’t know about American cars, but on European cars that symbol means temperature. Like bernse says, oil is usually a little oil can symbol (looks like Alladin’s lamp).
That’s definitely the temperature light. You still need to take a look at the dipstick to see if now you don’t have too much oil in the engine, which is not good. But you’re going to get an oil change and a filter, right?
So now we know that the car’s been overheating, and the heater doesn’t work. Top off your coolant and see if that doesn’t fix both problems. If it doesn’t fix the heater, I’d check that bypass valve. If it doesn’t fix the overheating problem you could have a coolant leak (make a visual inspection) or your water pump or thermostat could be malfuntioning.
You probably have too much oil in there now, and that isn’t good…But you were getting ready to change that oil anyway, right? hint hint
Since you drove the car several times with the temp light on, you may have overheated the engine. Not to the point of it quitting all together, but possibly cracked the aluminum head. I would strongly suggest you bum some cash off dad, and have a mechanic check it out, so you don’t get stranded somewhere.
Plato? Aristotle? Socrates? Morons!
~Can you be so warm? Can you know what I feel? -Better Than Ezra
), this tells me that your coolant is low. Is the engine overheating? If not, is the operating temperature getting up to normal? Low coolant or overheating can both cause the heater not to work. If the engine is extremely overheated, the oil light can come on, but you would notice the overheating before the light came on, so that is probably not it.
These are just a few guesses, but I would take it to a mechanic