R56 Oil Pressure Switch

[Darren93]

Calling all Mini geeks!

I'm having a little bit of trouble with my girlfriend's R56 mini (Nov 2010, N18 engine), more like Gremlins I hope...

On 2 occasions now the low oil pressure light has flashed up for a brief second then went away again, obviously brickers were laid etc.

There is nothing mechanically wrong with the car, running really well, no strange noises or knocks, no oil in exhaust, oil at the right level etc which you may expect from a genuine oil pressure issue.

There have been a few Gremlins with the car recently which are down to the 10 year old battery, this is being replaced with a nice new yuasa battery next week which should sort out a few niggles. Additionally I'm going to change the oil filter to rule that out and at the same time I'm looking to change the oil pressure sensor/switch encase that's on the blink.

Now I'm looking to source a new switch without getting my pants pulled down at the dealer. eBay has a good few options, febi Bilstein most notably, none of which I know I can trust but its the cheapest option. Euro car parts have a Delphi switch, again I'm dubious about calibration. The part number on real oem is 12617592532, I can't seem to get this in the uk.

Can anyone give me a link to the correct item or lend some advice?

Edited by Darren93 on Tuesday 22 January 17:05

[Elliot2000]

I would do the oil and filter change first and see how it goes.

They do have a solenoid valve on the back of the engine that controls oil pressure that can go wrong, it can also leak oil through the wiring of that solenoid all the way back into the engine ecu. Might be worth unplugging the ecu and checking for oil contamination as it’s a two second job

[Darren93]

Elliot2000 said:

I would do the oil and filter change first and see how it goes.

They do have a solenoid valve on the back of the engine that controls oil pressure that can go wrong, it can also leak oil through the wiring of that solenoid all the way back into the engine ecu. Might be worth unplugging the ecu and checking for oil contamination as it’s a two second job

The car was serviced by Arnold Clark where we bought the car from back in June, I have heard a good few stories of them not changing filters so definitely a good move to look into that first. I've got a Mann filter to go in which should be good quality.

On the note of the solenoid, I did read up on that and had a look under the car around September and gave the whole area a good clean. I checked back last week and it looks as I left it a few months ago which is a good sign... Maybe I'll try to disconnect the plug and have a look. Bloody tight space though

[stevemcs]

Delphi will be fine, i changed the vanos solenoid on mine, i went for genuine, removed the sensor ..... it had delphi written on the side.

With the battery you will need an agm battery and it needs to be coded to the car. Budget around £180

[Elliot2000]

Darren93 said:

The car was serviced by Arnold Clark where we bought the car from back in June, I have heard a good few stories of them not changing filters so definitely a good move to look into that first. I've got a Mann filter to go in which should be good quality.

On the note of the solenoid, I did read up on that and had a look under the car around September and gave the whole area a good clean. I checked back last week and it looks as I left it a few months ago which is a good sign... Maybe I'll try to disconnect the plug and have a look. Bloody tight space though

I mean the solenoid that goes into the back of the sump btw, not to be confused with the vanos one, and the plug connection is the one in the ecu near the washer fluid filler cap

[paultownsend]

Our 2010 N18 also does this. Once every two months perhaps. On and off within a second. No time to pull over.
You can read live oil pressure with a scanner. Verified with a mechanical gauge too. It’s fine.
I need to research this pressure sensor.

[Darren93]

paultownsend said:

Our 2010 N18 also does this. Once every two months perhaps. On and off within a second. No time to pull over.
You can read live oil pressure with a scanner. Verified with a mechanical gauge too. It’s fine.
I need to research this pressure sensor.

Paul, interestingly it happened in November and January so 2 months apart too. Changing the filter tomorrow and I'll get the exact part number from the pressure switch and compare this to what's available online.

Maybe get a better poke around the solenoid too, I would love to see someone on YouTube changing it or doing the repair on it but it seems fairly uncommon...

[stevemcs]

You can get the part number from real oem

[paultownsend]

It’s quite strange. My GF drives the same route most days. And whenit happens it’s normally in exactly in exactly the same place. 20 minutes after the journey starts, 70mph, on the dual carriageway. Odd. But as said, the pressure cold and warm has been verified by a mechanical gauge.

Anyway. Ours gets regular oil changes by myself. It’s a faff, but next time I’m going to drop the sump to have a look at the pick up pipe.

I will take a look at the pressure sensor in the filter housing too. What was the concencous for it leaking back up into the loom.

I forgot I have one of those cheap Bluetooth ODB readers that I’m going to put on the mini this weekend. Use for live oil pressure and temp readings.

[Darren93]

stevemcs said:

You can get the part number from real oem

The issue I was having is that I could find a switch to match the part number from real oem and there are lots of 'alternative' parts out there...

[Darren93]

paultownsend said:

It’s quite strange. My GF drives the same route most days. And whenit happens it’s normally in exactly in exactly the same place. 20 minutes after the journey starts, 70mph, on the dual carriageway. Odd. But as said, the pressure cold and warm has been verified by a mechanical gauge.

Anyway. Ours gets regular oil changes by myself. It’s a faff, but next time I’m going to drop the sump to have a look at the pick up pipe.

I will take a look at the pressure sensor in the filter housing too. What was the concencous for it leaking back up into the loom.

I forgot I have one of those cheap Bluetooth ODB readers that I’m going to put on the mini this weekend. Use for live oil pressure and temp readings.

Paul I've got an eBay style dongle which I use with Torque pro, this shows coolant temp which works well and alledgedy oil temp which I'll try at the weekend, no oil pressure unfortunately....

[Darren93]

Update,

Changed the oil filter which wasnt in great condition, certainly looked worse that a filter change I recently done on my brothers neglected Peugeot which had been in for around 5 years. Anyway, it was an OEM Purlux filter which I've changed out for a Mann item - aftermarket filters don't click into the housing quite so convincingly be warned.

I was hoping to inspect the pressure switch but didn't realise I would have to take off half the coolant system it seems. It was cold and getting on a bit so I didn't bother, I'll revisit the issue around March/April when I'll have a bit more light to work on it and coolant to refill the system.

In other news with the cold weather the battery took a turn for the worse, the car was running super rough with an engine management light on. Got the battery changed at Farmers Autocare - £177.99 fitted and coded for a Yuasa AGM battery, start stop now works, bargain price.

Engine management light continued afterwards, the guys in Farmers scanned for codes FOC which was very nice, misfiring in cylinder 3, removed the coil pack and refitted and it was back to full health, smoother than ever infact. Ordered a replacement Bosch ignition coil For the pricey sum of £15.70 as this seems to be an intermittent fault, no engine light, but could be smoother.