"Engine Oil Pressure Off" warning but runs fine, Jetta '09 2.0 TDI 16v CBD

Hi All,

First of all wanted to say I really like this forum!

So I have a bit of a weird issue with my VW Jetta 2009 2.0 TDI 16v CBD 120k miles.
I've had it about a year and a half now, without any major issues.

About 6 months ago, I suddenly had the "Engine Oil pressure Off" warning with alarm when I drove off from home (engine cold).
As I was a bit scared, I immediately took it to a garage which was luckily only half a mile away.
Once there, they suggested the oil pump had broken so they replaced it.

Since then, I've driven around 7-8k miles and everything was fine (great mileage, very little oil usage)
Two weeks ago though, the "Engine Oil pressure Off" alarm came back (after 5min of driving).
Scared again, I immediately had my car towed back home.
The next day, quite curious, I went for a testdrive and all was fine again.
I then drove at least another 800 miles without any issues.

Then yesterday, the message came back but this time it happened more frequently; drive for 10min, alarm again, cool down car, drives fine again for a few minutes, alarm again.
I suspected the Oil pressure sensor might be glitchy, so I went ahead and replaced it.
Sadly though, the "Oil pressure Off" alarm is still around.

I was wondering if someone might know what the problem here is.
The car is due a service in about 1k miles, but I didn't think initially that would be the problem.
I`m also aware you need at least 1500-2000RPM to get the alarm, so with all the drives I made sure to go over that limit.

I also believe this car doesn't have the dreaded balance shaft oil pump, so that shouldn't be the issue as well.
In terms of oil, I use 5W30 as per the book, perhaps a thicker oil would help?

Many thanks in advance.

Kind regards,
T

It needs an actual oil pressure check using a gauge plumbed into the oil pressure sensor fitting which is an M10x1 thread.

Thanks for the quick reply.

I've ordered a pressure tester with a short knee coupling as it's really tight in there.

I've read that 0.8bar idle and 2.0bar @ 2000RPM are good numbers, is that correct?

Many thanks again

The spec is an absolute minimum 2Bar at 2K rpm at 80 degrees c oil temp using 5w/30 oil BUT to me ths too low and I want to see 3+ and 5+ when cold. A hot idle of 1 Bar+ is ideal. The maximum reading should not exceed 7Bar!

Thanks a lot!

I will update in about a week when I have the pressure tester (can use my trusty triumph in the meantime).

Triumph what?

a 2-wheeler; speed triple, sadly not a car so probably doesn't really belong in this forum

New update!

So I received my oil pressure tester kit today and measured 1.0 bar at idle with a cold engine.
Weirdly though, once revving to 2k RPM the oil pressure drops off hard.

I`m not sure if this can mean that the demand for oil causes a pick-up line/sump to block up, but I think it might also be that my kit starts to leak.

As you can see in the image below, it's all a very tight fit, and I could barely make the non-drip fit.
I therefore think that once the engine starts shaking and/or pressure increase it starts to leak.

I`m ordering a short-knee adapter so that I`m certain that the non-drip is connected properly.

Cheers!


Attachment 37177

Could be a blocked pickup, we bought a 2010 Passat CRTDI with a blown turbo due to sump sludge.

Thanks for the reply.

Yeah the car has seen quite a few miles in its life, so will definitely check this out!

Would be weird that the garage didn't pick this up when they replaced my oil pump a few months ago, but might have not been blocked enough.

I`ll update tomorrow/monday on the new measurement with the correct installation.
As long as the car has 1bar on idle, I think i`ll let it warm up a bit and see what happens to the pressure then, also at 2k RPM.

Thanks again for your help.