1994 Jeta III

To anyone who can help,

I have a 1994 jetta III, recently my oil pressure indicator has been coming on now and then along with the annoying beeping sound. Oil was just put into the engine about a week or two ago. I wanted to know how i can fix this problem without paying a lot of money or taking it into a shop, i am not sure how to fix a low oil pressure problem. Does that mean there isnt enough oil in the car and more needs to be added? If someone could give me some direction with this i would very much appreicate it. thank you.

There are a few possible causes. 1st let me explain the alarms.
There are two sensors, one near the oil filter and one on the cylinder head. If you have a low pressure light with the engine at idle, then the low pressure sensor on the head reads low. The sensor on the filter holder goes if the sensor reads low pressure when the engine is above 2000 RPM. When this triggers you have a beep as well. If you run the engine with too low of oil pressure you will ruin it in short time.
Assuming that the oil alarm isn't on when you first start the car and comes on once the engine get hot and the oil thins down, the quick fix will be to put in Lucas oil stabilizer. It doesn't fix anything, but it increases the viscosity of the oil so that it will run without alarming. You should be using 10w 40 oil in your engine. Check this. Changing to 20w 50 (?) oil will have the same affect as adding Lucas. It's a bandaid, not a fix.

Possible problems:
1. Clogged screen on oil pump: remove oil pan, check screen, clean.
2. Bad oil pump: replace pump. Online part price ~ $50.
3. Bad engine bearings: rebuild engine.
4. Worn crank shaft: Buy rebuilt engine.

Hopefully it's just a clogged screen, an indication would be that the alarm comes on right away rather than after idling for 10-15 minutes.
Good luck.

It might be one of the sending units that Doug was talking about. Test them and to see if they are working correctly... I had to repace one on my old Toyata. It scared the crap out of me at first. Sorry I cant tell you how to test them.

You can get an oil pressure testing gage from Harbor Freight for $10. Use the 1/4 npt fitting and put it in place of the sensor. Run the engine for a bit and monitor the pressure at the oil filter, then repeat at the cylinder head. The pressure ranges for the sensors are stamped on the underside of the sensor. You could also buy new sensors on line for less than $10 and not have to worry about whether or not they are good. It's nice to have the gage around though.