Is it safe to drive a 2001 VW Passat with the oil light on and beeping?

Answer 1

Did you check the oil level? I would say NO it is NOT safe to drive. Unless the oil light and warning system is malfunctioning. Oil is the lifeblood of you rengine. Without oil the engine will seize up and you are lookign at major repair costs. If the engine has enough oil yet does not have enough oil pressure to push the oil thru the engine passages it needs to, then you will once again suffer severe engine damage. Check the oil level first and then see if the oil ight goes out. If the oil level is fine and the light still stays on, then I would say your oil pump is probably gone and to drive it then is asking for more trouble. The warnign system being wrong is the last thing I would think it is........but it is possible. I had a similar situation. The light would come on and make a noise, but the oil level was okay when I stopped to check it. The light would then go off and on again intermittently. I brought it to my mechanic who found nothing wrong with the car (did this a few times). Eventually, it became worse (took a few months). When my mechanic took the oil pan off, he found lots of bits of silicone at the bottom of the pan which were getting into the oil pump inlet and causing low pressure readings to trigger the alarm. Luckily, he found it before the oil pump was damaged. He told me that the mechanic who performed an earlier job where I had the oil pan removed, was not careful in the sealant bead and left a considerable amount of excess in the oil pain which eventually degraded and fell into the bottom of the oil pan.