Hello Everyone,

I am new to volvo, just bought a 85 244 DL a couple of months back. Just have a question, I just did a normal oil change, droped the oil, changed the filter and put new oil in. But then when I started it the oil light comes on sometimes, kinda flickers, it is not low on oil, and does not have to much. Is there something special with volvo when you do an oil change? Any help would be great, thanks in advance.

Reuben

If you have an oil pressure gauge look at that and you should see if there is a problem with oil pressure. Otherwise it would be bad wiring for the sender. Or else if could just be because you have an old engine and its starting to wear a bit.

Hi Reuben, welcome to us and volvos!

did you change to a synthetic, or a much thinner viscoscity oil when you did your change?

- R

No I don't have an oil pressure gauge, the wierd thing is when I bought it, the oil light was not on. It just started going on right after I did the oil change. The thing is I have no clue what was in there before, I just put 5W30 regular oil in, would it be maybe if he had synthetic in there and I just put regular in, what that put the oil light on? What is the best oil to be using in this volvo. Thanks for your help.

Reuben

every new volvo uses synthetic 5w30 castrol oil so it must be fine.

how many km on your rig?

Welcome

It is very likely just a faulty oil pressure sending unit, it is a common problem, but whenever low oil pressure is indicated it is a very good idea to actually check the oil pressure with a gauge to make sure.

There is 242*** on my car, so what is better to use in mine regular or synthetic, can I just change the filter and start putting synthetic in mine or do I have to do something special now that I have been using regular?

I wouldn't recommend it to be honest, with that many km changing to synthetic will cause it to leak out a bunch of seals due to the different composition in the oil. I changed and I leak out the rear main a lot...

Ok thanks for the advise.

I've heard of that problem, but I've used synthetic in every one of my previously-enjoyed vehicles and not one of them have sprung leaks.

5w30 is too thin for aged 240s in the summer, in my opinion. I would use 20w50 organic oil or 5w50 synthetic. True, it could be a faulty sender or more likely bad wiring, but if you didn't have this trouble before the oil change (and if it's your first oil change with this vehicle) it's likely the previous owner had something thicker in there. Like gear oil perhaps. Wouldn't put it past certain used-car lots or shady characters.

try draining it and filling with something thicker, 10w40 or 20w50 and see.

Don't put additives in though, they are.....useless at best

Something else I should mention is that I thought it had something to do with the thinkness of the oil, so I had 10/30 in there at first, then I tried 10/40 and now 5/30, it seems to be that the oil light is on less with thinner oil?? If that helps any.......

hey darlin and welcome! show your face at the meet next week so I'm not the only newbie out there!
(sadly, I don't know an easy answer for your oil problem, but the guys here are generally pretty knowledgable and helpful, so don't worry, you're in good hands

does the light ever come on when driving? or is it only on startup?

Yes it is on all the time when I am driving, more or less flickers though, does not stay on solid, and lower rpms and when stoped it is dimmer, it is more at the higher RPMs that it is on brighter. On a side note, when is the next meet, and where is it?