Fitting an Oil Pressure Warning Light to a Classic Austin Healey 3000Posted by Meyers Mclaughlin on January 19th, 2021 Most modern cars come with an orange oil pressure warning light to inform you in case you are losing oil. But once it appears about it may perhaps be too late and the damage is done. Many classic cars were fitted by having an oil pressure gauge so that the driver could see that which was actually happening. Some classics had both a gauge with an oil pressure just to make sure. Our Austin Healey had only the gauge but after an incident in 2009 I decided to match a warning light also. Modern drivers aren't really in control of their cars and know almost no by what is occurring underneath the bonnet. useful reference have a temperature gauge to help you determine if the auto is over heating, in addition to that any devices is computer controlled with warning lights to let you know when the engine management or ABS fails, or if the oil level is low, or worse in case you lose pressure. Most drivers are used to being ensconced in the quiet, comfortable car, playing loud music and completely ignoring what the car is doing, unless it tells them there is a problem. This was not the case on classic cars which had gauges showing perhaps the main systems were all working. A temperature gauge and fuel gauge obviously but many of them were also fitted with rev counters and ammeters or battery gauges therefore the driver knows if your dynamo or alternator is charging properly. Many of them have an oil pressure gauge and so the driver can monitor the oil pressure. The key word here's monitor. Most engines run with oil pressures of anything from 40 to 100 pounds per square in . (psi). When a train locomotive starts up the oil is cold and thick as well as the pressure is going to be high - maybe close to the 100 psi mark. As the engine warms up, the oil thins out a lttle bit and will start a family to around 40 to 60 psi with respect to the engine. Oil pressure warning lamps usually are set at about 5-10 psi, so when the light occurs you might have hardly any oil pressure left and a major problem. Most of our own fleet of classic hire cars have pressure gauges fitted as standard and we do explain their function to the drivers once we get them and play with it at the start of their day's hire. On the rare occasions I have forgotten to cover this we now have occasionally received a trip later in the day when they have spotted that the pressure was less than after they embark. We stood a particular situation develop on our Austin Healey 3000 during 2009. This is fitted having an oil pressure gauge but no warning light. To allow customers of size and shapes to rent the auto, we replaced the first 16" diameter steering wheel which has a 14" diameter wheel. This gives the trucker more room to go in and exit the cars plus it doesn't rub on the tops with their legs. However with the main tyre fitted, all the gauges including oil pressure were visible inside rim from the steering wheel. The 14" wheel meant that the oil pressure gauge was now obscured by the rim as well as the driver's left hand. When moving, the drivers would have to create a deliberate movement to find out the gauge this also assumes they remember they will check it, when modern cars don't have such devices. Our Healey created slight oil leak derived from one of with the engine oil seals, as classic cars have a tendency to. Not ordinarily a problem as I confirm the levels every time the car goes out on hire. Oil leaks by their nature tend to worsen instead of fix themselves so eventually on checking the automobile over after it absolutely was on hire for 2 days, I noticed that there were almost no oil in it and when cornering the oil pressure would drop just to recover about the straight. This happens because the oil surges from the pump pickup inside the sump as the auto turns one way, and flows back when it straightens up or turns the other way. Many years ago in my youth I a Triumph Spitfire having an oil leak. Being a lazy youngster I waited until the oil pressure gauge moved when going round a roundabout and treated this as being a signal to reload the oil level. While that could have been acceptable on a Spitfire worth a couple of hundred pounds it is not a shrewd approach with an Austin Healey worth over A�20,000, specially when the client will not notice the gauge anyway. I had the oil seal replaced by my usual garage but asked these phones add an oil pressure warning light at the same time. find out here is an simple procedure. look at this website in the engine block. This is removed and replace using a threaded brass T piece. The oil pressure gauge sensor will be fitted into one for reds with the T and also the pressure sensor to the warning lamp fitted for the other side from the T. The convention is that oil warning lamps are orange so an orange light was fitted in the centre from the dashboard, next towards the indicator warning light and wired on the sensor. Now if the ignition is fired up, the oil lamp illuminates and chimes as soon because the engine is running. The oil pressure gauge still works as normal but even though it can't be seen behind the driver's left hand, he will determine there exists a problem when he gets an orange light right involving the eyes.Like it? Share it! More by this author |