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Recently, I have noticed that sporadically upon startup, my oil pressure light will come on and the audible alarm beeps. Usually when this happens, I can idle the engine up a little bit and the alarm will shut off. This seems to be happening more and more lately and the last time I was out, it happened on two consecutive startups and the alarm would not shut off. I let the engine sit for a few minutes and started it up again and had no issue. We went on to have a great day with many starts and stops with no issues. I have read other posts on this site and see that it can be chalked up to not having any oil, a bad sensor, or the Sh*tty VDO cluster.

I do have the VDO cluster, but want to make sure it isn't a bigger problem. I have checked the oil and it is full and clean. Are there any sure fire things I can check when this occurs to make sure it is a sensor or gauge issue vs. something major? If the temp alarm goes off, I can hit the thermostat housing with the infrared thermometer...what can I check for the oil pressure alarm?

Also, do any of you know if this alarm is triggered from the gauge or if it has its own sensor. It is my understanding that the temp alarm is on a different sensor from the gauge.

Thanks!!!

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2001 Four Winns 180 Horizon
4.3L Volvo Penta

The manual for the 2000 VDO cluster indicates there is only one input for oil pressure; pin 10, light blue wire. The sender it works with should have 240 Ohm resistance at 6 psi, 33 ohm resistance at 100 psi. The alarm sounds if the cluster detects below 6 psi. Bad connections would of course increase the resistance and it may detect a lower pressure than there actually is. What as the oil pressure gauge shwing when you had the low pressure alarm?

This is the text from the manual:

OIL Pressure Gauge: Oil pressure (0-80 PSI) is measured using a standard US 240-33 Ώ US range sensor (Default) or a VDO 10-180 Ώ range sensor can be selected using the VDO calibration software. See Customer Service Bulletin 07-001 (page 15).
Alarm: The Oil telltale will light and the horn will “Beep” for 10 seconds if the Oil pressure drops below 6 PSI.
Fault: An Ohm value below 15 Ώ US (3 Ώ VDO) or above 280 Ώ US (210 Ώ VDO) will illuminate the telltale, “Beep” the horn every 2 seconds, and move the pointer to the “zero” position.

I can send you a copy of the manual by PM if you want it.

Graham

Graham,
I appreciate your quick response on this item. It looks like I am going to have to grab my multimeter, put the boat on the muffs, and try to duplicate the issue. That is, if I can find the sender (I posted on this other topic for that: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=4060). With this being an intermittent issue, I am not thinking it is the Oil Pump. My plan is to check the wire connections, test with the multimeter, and if all else fails, just replace the sender (since it is about a $40 part...I think) and hope it clears up the issue.

Let me know anyone has any other suggestions.

Thanks again!!!

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2001 Four Winns 180 Horizon
4.3L Volvo Penta

I don't know if a new sender will fix your problem or not. I played many games getting my VDO cluster to work before I replaced it. For your specific problem I talked to my dealer and he just had me install a bias resister parallel to the sender. I'm not sure I remember the exact resistance he told me to use, but I'm guessing it was about 1200 ohms. If you want to try that route, talk to your dealer as I'm pretty sure there is a service bulletin on this subject.

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