Just give the car, interior and engine a good wash, stayed away from the renix and dizzy as much as poss, it started right away afterwards
But after about a mile the oil light started to flicker on. Saw it flicker, turned engine off immediately, then stopped.
Checked oil level, FULL.
The Exclamation light next to it comes on too, they flicker together.

It stays off for about a minute after startup. I thought the oil was foaming, i did see a few* (like 6) bubbles on the dipstick.

Anyone else got a haywire oil light after washing engine, is this nothing to worry about? or maybe I contaminated the oil a little?

what engine do you have?

B14 (jan 21 1985)

Now it wont start... keeps firing off sequence, EG firing on compression stroke, almost stopping the engine cranking.
That's what you get for washing and cleaning it.


Right now when the ignition is turned on the shift indicartor light is lit up very dimly, it goes out if you select 5th gear.

The Crank sensor is dry, the 3 cables going to the renix are dry, the fusebox is not dry.


I need a really big hair dryer.

the weathers pretty hot, it should start tomorrow fingers crossed... touch wood, throw salt over shoulder...

Is there a chance you overfilled it with oil?

Nope, the level is exactly inline with the cutout on the stick, not added any, oil hasnt been touched, water hasn't gotten in either like I had feared, probably due to my "improved" super tightly filling oilcap. No oil issue, apart from its a bit petrol-diluted, but only a bit, it's only about 3 months old with 3500 miles ish.




---------------- BP could do with some advice on carelessness with oil

2,450,000,000 mm3 ~ of oil in the sea... (Cubic millimetres)

700,000,000 Km2 ~ Area of the sea (Square K's) (source: Wiki)


4mm ~ Depth of oil there will be on the sea. (source: brain)

Is that about right???


if so, thats as of yesterday... another million gallons went in the sea today, and there's another 2 weeks to go (14,000,000 gallons) till they "think" they can "maybe" "possibly" plug the hole (it's actually three holes)


------------------------

these figures could be (are) grossly inaccurate.

i'd remove the dizzy and clean it up a bit, that is the mostlikely suspect for such misfiring after a wash like this.

about the oil light, this is oil pressure not oil level. there is a oil pressure switch just on the left side of the oil filter, a black wire is connected to it. there might be something with this connection.

I got the dizzy cap off, was a bit of condensation in there, cleaned it up and scraped the corrosion off the arm and terminals, fired up first time, in fact it's not run this good for ages.

Thanks for the info on the wire, I'll give it the once over, didnt know where thoe oil switch was - I would have looked in the haynes but it's totally useless IMO - not much detail... I need a proper workshop manual

(weird thing is, - when the oil light comes on and I turn off the engine for a few seconds, when I restart it it stays off, then slowly gets brighter and brighter till it's screaming STOP!!!, then after a restart it stays off, then gets slowly brighter, it's obviously malfunctioning since it should be OFF and ON, its a pressure operated switch isn't it, not a pressure operated potentiometer/variable resistor...) ??? is that right?

I'll check that wire now, I think I'll find a load of green oxide seeing what the dizzy was like after a bit of water...

(By the way, I got it running with a piece of kitchen paper and a butterknife when it conked out at my mums, I'm happy with that)

FIXED! Thank you thank you thank you!!!

The spade connector was a bit green, pulled it off and on a few times now the lights stay off.

All the factory manuals are available for download on here

Green books do come up for sale every so often, but often for the old ones rather than the new ones that we have available