Oil Light on sharp left turns
 

1986 300E - When I make a hard left turn from a stop or on a freeway ramp, the oil light is starting to come on. Dipstick tells me I am down approximately 1/2 a quart but still within the guidelines. Sounds dumb, but I mean halfway between the two red plastic pieces on the dipstick.

At a stop, the pressure reading is below 2 but above 1, and it jumps right up to three with any acceleration. With 185,000 miles is this an indicator of the oil pump going south?

As a side note, getting intermittent lights from the ABS.

--Craig

When your oil light comes on, are you seeing your oil pressure decrease? The oil light is related to level not pressure. If you are losing pressure also, this is not a good thing.

Good luck,

Pressure okay
 

No, the pressure doesn't drop, it stays pegged at 3. The light comes on with hard banking turns, but the pressure stays up.

I think that it is about 2 litres between the two marks, so you're down about a quart...

What model engine do you have...under hard cornering situations, certain models are more prone to having the oil light come on than others...I can be a quart low on my 3.2L 300E without having the light come on when hard cornering, but others may do so.

My old Bug would do the same thing. When I modified the engine, I installed a deep sump (2.5 added oil capacity), and a crankcase windage tray, which prevented oil starvation at high cornering speeds...problem went away.

In your case, just keep the oil level at the full level...

Due to the fact that the oil level indicator is mounted on the left side of the pan, it is natural for the indication to change when in a hard corner.

MB anticipated this and built a delay into the circuitry of the instrument cluster. In other words while cornering to the left the sensor gives the low reading (as it should with much of the oil on the right side). The instrument cluster should ignor this for some period of time (say 30 seconds..... I really don't know how long). If you are truely low on oil (this doesn't change rapidly unless you break the pan) it will give a reading once that interval has passed.

I suspect the cluster is defective, i wouldn't worry about it.

My '86 300E did the same thing for the last two years. When the oil level was down by about 3/4 quart the light came on at hard left turns. The easiest sollution is to keep the oil level at max.

Alex

Thanks to all
 

Didn't realize there were two quarts measured on the dipstick. Until I can afford to to get the valves done, you can bet I'll be monitoring the dipstick a lot closer.


--Craig

What a difference a quart makes!
 

What a difference a quart of oil makes. I thought I was only down half a quart, not more than one. When i got home the other night I put a quart in and lo and behold, the light went out. Pressure actually went up closer to the 2 bar during idle. I know I'm burning oil through the valves, especially during freeway runs.

Thanks again for setting me straight about the dipstick. I'll keep a close eye on my level now that I know I don't have room to play.

--Craig