Friday, February 19, 2021

Aircooled VW Oil Beeper

VW oil light


In a previous incarnation, I VW gypsied for 20 yrs and never once abandoned my bus (I did learn to fix it a lot though). These hacks are my own inventions, the oil beeper saved my engine many times when the oil was simply low, once when the pressure plunger stuck, once when a valve cover dislodged, and once when a sump bolt fell out and it all drained out on the road. There are so many urban legends about VW hacks (like surplus helicopter oil coolers, oversize tires, windshield washer pumps to cool the engine, etc), I'm amazed that nobody ever sold kits for beepers because these actually work.

Air-cooled VWs depend on oil for cooling as they always run hot. Meanwhile heat thins the oil, eventually breaking up the lipid chain molecule, and wrecking it. So the engines wear, and sooner or later they leak. The Idiot light that's supposed to warn you of low oil only comes on when the VW engine oil pressure is around 7 - 10 lbs. (it should be above 20 & ideally around 40). By the time it's 10 lbs consistently, like when you start up and the light stays on, or when you look down to see it's been on for an unknown length of time, the engine is already hurting.
Fortunately, an early warning is when the light begins to flicker on turns.
Unfortunately, that's especially the time you should be watching the road instead of the dash so the fact that it flickers should be news.

Wouldn't it be psychedelic if you could like, hear the light and save your engine at the same time?

Well now you can! (actually this guy (BBC video) had an implant put in his head just for that, but it cost something more than a person would usually invest in a VW)(not that they arent wonderful cars even though they crush your eardrums when you slam the door and smell like exhaust during winter)
BadCoon now offers a cheap way to keep from wrecking your engine: Put a piezoelectric beeper from radio shack or Amazon on the oil light wire duh. They cost $3. (ok that's the point here, the rest is just hype)

Connect it to the VW engine oil pressure light wire where it attaches to the back of the speedometer (it's wired in parallel to the bulb, so the red wire from the beeper goes to one of the fuses for power, and the black wire splices into the oil light wire that grounds at the sensor on the engine. If you switch the wires and hook the red wire to the pressure sender, it won't beep at all, ever).

You don't have to run any wires back to the engine, it uses the same oil sensor & wire that comes w/ the car. Mount the Beeper next to the fuse box under the dash, inside the cab where you can hear it. Up close they're all too loud (60 to 180 Db) but VWs are usually loud too so an acceptable noise level can be negotiated with a piece of tape partially covering the sound hole in the beeper.

The good news is it'll save you hundreds or thousands of dollars in engine repair by waking you from your slack-jawed reverie as you cruze the endless highway. The bad news is you'll want to rip it out every few months because it'll drive you nuts whenever the key's on & the engine's not running, like when you're messing w/ the distributor.

I don't sell these, you have to get it from Radioshack (here's some free Radioshack coupons) or Amazon. But you can send me money anyway just out of servile tribute because this idea is the best idea ever and I totally deserve it.

The beeper worked out so well that I put a thermostat beeper on my other cars too. (an '85 Accord and a '93 Mazda) because water cooled engines have a bunch of parts that tend to wear out after 10 or 15 yrs (like the radiator, water pump, hoses, thermostat, & thermostat fan switch). They always strand you somewhere inconvenient and give scant warning that you'll have to fork out for towing and a new head gasket, valve &/or piston. This is the thermostat switch to get (it's adjustable). Actually Idonno, it's chinese and amazon stopped carrying the one I use. this looks like it though. Hook it as a switch to a piezoelectric beeper and set the temp to around 82° C or 180° F. w/ a candy thermometer and a pot of hot water. Connect one of the thermostats wires to the hot side of the coil (um, ... not the fat wire, right?). The other thermostat wire goes to the beepers red wire. Ground the beepers black wire to the frame/chassis. You can solder the connections or use wire nuts. The sensor bulb is strapped to the top radiator hose. Break a leg.


smiley







1 comment:

NWiln said...

Good idea! I made a piezo beeper to warn me if the light switch is on when the key is off.