'87 Venture oil light

[Ga Dawg]

Anyboby know why the oil light on the board is lit up and the oil level is fine? I understand it is a level indicator. How would I trouble shoot and where would I look?

Thanks for any help.

[GeorgeS]

Anyboby know why the oil light on the board is lit up and the oil level is fine? I understand it is a level indicator. How would I trouble shoot and where would I look?

Thanks for any help.

 

See page 7-61 Service Manual, Block Diagram. Sender picks up ground when level is normal, and ground goes to the CME, ( computerized monitor unit ) . Its a B/R wire going into the Instrument Panel. Wire goes thru the Larger plug on the Inst. panel.

 

See page 7-44, Signal system, Oil level sender unit. Follow wires from the sender unit, and clean the pull apart plug. ( this Might be the problem )

 

Most likley, the problem, is inside the CME, circuit board. Its common to have cold solder joints on this board, causeing many of the Warning lights to erronously flash.

Mine is doing same thing for the Head Light Warning.

 

Fix is to remove windshield, and then the Inst Panel, then open it up, find the CME board and resolder connections. Follow the Black/Red wire to the connect point on the circuit board inside the Inst Panel.

 

Its a nice winter project job. !!!

[bobcat]

Anyboby know why the oil light on the board is lit up and the oil level is fine? I understand it is a level indicator. How would I trouble shoot and where would I look?

Thanks for any help.

 

Are you sure its the oil light? The "oil can" icon would be on ..The reason I ask is many have mistaken the more common "tear drop" icon, which means brake fluid is low, for engine oil....

[6m459]

Hi,

 

My 'new' red '84 has a similar problem that I have traced to the sender unit itself. Here is the process I used to come to this conclusion, suggest you proceed similarly as follows:

 

Sensor is located on the underside of the engine near the oil drain bolt. In this picture, the red circle is the oil sensor unit, I think (not my pic, I stole it from an ebay auction but it jives with my recollection of the lay of the land under there).

 

Physically trace the wire from the sender unit up the frame to where it joins the bike's wiring at an in line single wire plug & socket. (Its about 18" of wire from the sensor to the plug but I cannot recall the route of the wire at present and I am not near the bike now, sorry.)

 

Once you find that plug & socket, disconnect the sensor from the bike by unplugging plug from socket (now you really should have a CMS oil level alert on the dash). Use an alligator jumper lead to ground the bike side of the plug/socket. Connect to a good frame ground. Assuming you have a good solid ground, if all is well you should see the dashboard oil alert go away possibly after a couple of seconds delay. The CMS interprets the jumper to ground as the sensor saying YUP GOT OIL.

 

With known good oil level in the engine, use a multi-meter to check the sensor side of the plug/socket for continuity to ground. In my case I found it to be open circuit. Thus I concluded that my sensor is at fault.

 

I kept the multi meter connected and watched its reading as I manipulated the sensor's wire all along its length. Up close to the sensor, I found that if I twisted the wire one way, I had open circuit and if I twisted it a different way I'd get good continuity to ground. From this I concluded it is something to do with the condition of the wire going into the sensor.

 

I have resolved to remove the sensor and investigate further the next time I change the oil, as removing the sensor likely allows the oil to drain and I had just finished an oil change.

 

Hope I have been clear and that this is of some assistance to you.

 

Best regards,

 

Brian H.

Uxbridge Ont.