Oil light paranoia

[Annaz]

On my travels today at speeds in excess of 80mph my oil light came on, with the oil can symbol flashin on the dash, for approx 6secs.

The oil level is fine, so I assume it's a pressure thing?

It doesn't use any oil at all, doesn't smoke or missbehave.

This happened three times today on a trip of about 200 miles.

I'm now spending too much time looking at the light went I should be focused on the road and the numpties thereon

Any ideas?

[RealityRSV]

take the bulb out?

[2 smokes 4 ever]

take the bulb out?

well thats helpful!

might be just the pressure sensor

Try replacing it as a first step

[Annaz]

Yeh, but funny as well

I was wondering about the sensor thingumy and wether R1's have a history of dodgeyness there, they are cheap so one is going on order.

I can't see it being the pump or oil viscosity so I suppose that's favourite,

Cheers Smokey

[Hendo]

You don't say what year your R1 is, but assuming your R1 is the same set up as my R6 was (year 2000), the oil warning light is NOT a pressure light, its a level light (i.e when the level gets too low it comes on)

My haynes manual for my R6 recommended using a pressure tester on a specific oil-way on the bike at set intervals, cannot remember the intervals though.

When mine was running a bit low once (it used to use a bit of oil), it would flash when going over brow of hills, braking hard etc but go off on flat roads.

Like I say, I have no idea if your R1 has the same set-up as my R6, or have yamaha since put a proper pressure sensor on the engine instead of a level light?

Just an idea for you.

Andy

[MonkeyJim]

if your bike is an r1 then as others have said, it's an oil level warning light, rather than oil pressure.

on my '99 model, once the oil level drops down to less than halfway between max and min on the sight glass, the warning light will come on periodically.

keep the oil level topped up to max and it's no problem. That's easier than replacing the oil level sensor...

[rossm]

Yip on my old R1 even if it was just slightly below the full mark it would come on, doesn't half cause heart failure the first few times it happened

[Annaz]

Wow that's a sensitive sensor, the bike' s oil level has dropped about 1mm in the last 1000miles,

it's now about 2mm from the top of the sight glass.

I'll top up the oil a little and have blast round the block!

Cheers

[ChrisH]

All the FZR1000's used to do that, nice to know Yamaha fixed that in their later models. pfffftttttt

[marcaztls]

What year is your R1?

This is a well-known problem on many models of R1 that used the level sensor type setup.

The original sensor was a plastic float inside a plastic cage. After time the outer cage (and maybe the inside float?) would deform due to heat etc. and so the float action wouldn't be so good. That coupled with it being quite sensitive and the way the sump holds oil under movement/location of sensor etc. it would flash and so on for some people. It was more likely to come on when wheelie'ing the early R1's for a decent distance.

A good fix (but not 100%) is to replace the original plastic type sensor with the later metal cage type. They're less prone to sticking the floats but unfortunatley due to the overall design it's still not a guarranteed fix.

The majority of owners never see their oil light but some are affected quite often with perfect levels and pump operation. Go figure.

DISCLAIMER: All that's providing your oil pump etc is working of course!

EDIT: Remember also, too much oil isn't a good thing either.

[addiction269]

you havent changed sprockets on the front recently - on an old kwak of mine i changed the front and replaced the cover, but accidentally trapped a wire which then left the oil light on,just a thought

[Annaz]

What year is your R1?

This is a well-known problem on many models of R1 that used the level sensor type setup.

The original sensor was a plastic float inside a plastic cage. After time the outer cage (and maybe the inside float?) would deform due to heat etc. and so the float action wouldn't be so good. That coupled with it being quite sensitive and the way the sump holds oil under movement/location of sensor etc. it would flash and so on for some people. It was more likely to come on when wheelie'ing the early R1's for a decent distance.

A good fix (but not 100%) is to replace the original plastic type sensor with the later metal cage type. They're less prone to sticking the floats but unfortunatley due to the overall design it's still not a guarranteed fix.

The majority of owners never see their oil light but some are affected quite often with perfect levels and pump operation. Go figure.

DISCLAIMER: All that's providing your oil pump etc is working of course!

EDIT: Remember also, too much oil isn't a good thing either.

It's a 4xv 99 motor.

I'm taking the sensor out 2moz to inspect it, like you say, too much oil etc.

ta much