I just bought a 4000 cs quattro and the oil pressure light seems to be on just about all the time. At idle its brighter, but while driving its more dimmed but still on. The oil level is good though, any ideas what it is? My best guess would be the sender. Also, what is normal running temperatures for these engines? Mine seems to run a bit hot, around 110-120 C. Not sure if thats normal or not...

 

thats hot. Get a machanical guage and plug it in, and check how much oil preasure you actually have before trying to mask the problem.

 

ok so... oil pressure problem has been solved, it was just a bad connection to the sender, someone had the VDO sender for the auxilary gauge hooked up to the light instead of the gauge, just had to swap the wires and i was good to go, gauge works fine and everything.

Now as far as temperature goes... My oil temperature after a 15 minute drive seems to hover around 75-85 C, but my engine temp gauge is still high and my VDO temp gauge reads around 110-120 C. However, after a 15 minute drive I (very carefully) took the cap off of the overflow tank and inserted a cooking thermometer (trust me its accurate my mom uses it for making candy and that sort of stuff) and it only read about 180 F, or 83 C, which would be right around normal operating temperature. Also, the engine is cool enough that i can set my hand on the valve cover. Would this be a problem with the temperature sender? maybe the thermostat?

Also, when cold i have a ticking noise in the engine, it goes away after i drive for about 5 minutes. Sticking valve maybe? any ideas?

 

the temp is fine i think the thermostat opens at about 87C .... hydraulic valve lifters try some 5w30 or 0w40

 

hey thanks for the help. yeah the valve lifter problem doesnt come up very often though, i guess its not quite first on my list of problems. I think im gonna try a cooler thermostat, flush/clean the cooling system, and maybe switch to toyota red coolant. Possibly new radiator if i still cant get her to cool off...