Handbrake and Oil Pressure

[rossyl]

Hi,

So my first drive with my new (to me) 4200 and a couple of issues, just like a bit of guidance on please

Oil Pressure Light Briefly Flashing Up

When at 2500 revs and foot off the accelerator the oil sensor would very occasionally and briefly flash. Foot back on the accelerator and it goes away.

Any ideas? Autofficina didn;t flag this, so I'm assuming it fine and was a quirk.

EDIT :
To better describe the Oil Pressure issue.

Driving along 6th gear 70mph. Foot on accelerator. Revs at 3000 oil pressure at 5bar. Remove foot from accelerator, car at 65mph. Revs slowly drop to 2500 revs. Sometimes the oil pressure drops from 5bar to about 2.5bar. But it does so erratically. When it hits 2.5bar the oil pressure light comes on and the oil symbol comes on for a fraction of a second. The pressure then goes back to 5bar and all is fine.

Handbrake

The handbrake is utterly useless and my parents driveway is sloped towards the house. I was trying to park the car, it's a tight driveway with 4 cars. Hill Hold wasn't helping much and it was rolling back a bit to quick for my liking. I tried to use the Handbrake to stop the car, but even with that up it was rolling back. Scary.

I eventually got it into the spot I wanted and pulled the Handbrake up. 1st gear. Turned the wheels sideways. Switched off the car. Released my foot of the brake and it rolled back a bit but then stopped. The car now has bricks under all wheels.

Autofficina did comment that the handbrake needs adjustment, but I thought it would be more effective.

I'm going to get the handbrake shoes looked at and possibly relined. But I'm hoping it will be much better when done?


Are there any tricks to parking on slopes? Its hard to catch the car without jumping forwards.

Cheers all
R

 

[Emtee]

Hi Rossyl, welcome to 4200 ownership!

Okay, the oil pressure. It's a warning lamp so it shouldn't come on regularly. If you've run the car on a motorway or some such, where the hot engine is getting plenty of cooling, but then suddenly hit town traffic with a hot engine and no cooling, then yes you may get the lamp in start stop traffic, but the fans should kick in and be trying to bring it back to 2.5 bar. If you have less than 1.75 bar at warm idle, then it's worth getting it looked at. 5 bar under throttle is what it should be. If the oil pressure needle is erratic, get it looked at also, as this could be a flaky pressure sender. Easy enough fix.

Right, the hand brake.......to put it bluntly it's c**p! . Worth getting the cable tightened to max and have the shoes checked / replaced - they're prone to delamination, so don't be surprised if you find there's no brake surface left.

If you plan to park regularly at your parents, enquire whether they'd mind you fitting a winch at the top of the drive. Your brakes and particularly your clutch will thank you, and the winch WILL be cheaper.

 

[Maser Sod]

Hi,
So my first drive with my new (to me) 4200 and a couple of issues, just like a bit of guidance on please
Oil Pressure Light Briefly Flashing Up
R

Why not give Elias a quick call to check. I personally would want peace of mind as I've never had an oil light come on in 7 years of Maser ownership. Also, you could plug an ODB-II reader in to see if a code has been recorded, then post it up here.

 

[2b1ask1]

I'll sort out the thread I did when I sorted my handbrake, they are poor but can be sorted to hold on steep slopes; my driveway is 1:5 and it holds on that now. I'd go with the Belfast Brakes quick turn around but then be prepared to file quite a bit to get them to fit the drums. Then there is quite a fiddly cable adjustment, finally you do need to settle them on a run!!!

 

[Emtee]

Why not give Elias a quick call to check. I personally would want peace of mind as I've never had an oil light come on in 7 years of Maser ownership. Also, you could plug an ODB-II reader in to see if a code has been recorded, then post it up here.

Agree with you Pat, though the owners manual does mention the lamp coming on under the circumstances I described above, but certainly one to check if it's coming on more regularly.

 

[rossyl]

Why not give Elias a quick call to check. I personally would want peace of mind as I've never had an oil light come on in 7 years of Maser ownership. Also, you could plug an ODB-II reader in to see if a code has been recorded, then post it up here.

Thanks everyone.

Shall give Autofficina a ring tomorrow for sure. Just wondered if it was a common quirk.

Parking the thing is pretty scary...any tips.


Didn't realize that when Belfast Brakes reline the handbrake shoes, they would require a lot of filing to refit. Why don't they just make them back up to oem spec?


Thanks

 

[Emtee]

The reclined brake shoes should be fine Rossyl. It's the pads that need filing.

 

[rossyl]

Thanks Miles.

To better describe the Oil Pressure issue.

Driving along 6th gear 70mph. Foot on accelerator. Revs at 3000 oil pressure at 5bar. Remove foot from accelerator, car at 65mph. Revs slowly drop to 2500 revs. Sometimes the oil pressure drops from 5bar to about 2.5bar. But it does so erratically. When it hits 2.5bar the light comes on and the oil symbol comes on for a fraction of a second. The pressure then goes back to 5bar and all is fine.

 

[Emtee]

Hi Rossyl, based on your description I'm surprised you're seeing any pressure drop, and you certainly shouldn't be getting a warning lamp, as this triggers at 1.25 bar. Worth getting it checked. The sender is known to be flaky and a replacement isn't too expensive. Could just be a dodgy connection, but for peace of mind you could ask the garage to take a manual pressure reading. The gauge sits in the same spot as the removed sender.

Hope you get it sorted without too much hassle.

 

[Brendan]

Thanks Miles.

To better describe the Oil Pressure issue.

Driving along 6th gear 70mph. Foot on accelerator. Revs at 3000 oil pressure at 5bar. Remove foot from accelerator, car at 65mph. Revs slowly drop to 2500 revs. Sometimes the oil pressure drops from 5bar to about 2.5bar. But it does so erratically. When it hits 2.5bar the light comes on and the oil symbol comes on for a fraction of a second. The pressure then goes back to 5bar and all is fine.

This doesn't seem right to me.

 

[lozcb]

This doesn't seem right to me.

It isnt right and most likely the sender switch definately get it checked out , re the handbrake ...................they neednt be crapp , they are quite adequate and fit for purpose they just need to be reguarly adjusted , every few months litterally , they do tend to glaze over, i find a yearly roughing up with some coarse wet and dry and 6 monthly adustment has always kept the 4200 and the Gransport handbrakes working as they should



regards loz



regards loz

 

[Emtee]

With regard to parking, it's always best to leave it in gear. It's what the car assumes you'll do and it'll beep at you frantically if you drop it to neutral. Foot on brake at restart will drop it back to neutral anyway, so it's an easy habit to get into. If the handbrake really won't hold the car at all, then the shoes may well be delaminated. As the shoes loose their braking surface the lever will have more play, so if you have to pull it unusually high to get any friction, this may well be a pointer also. So between getting the shoes relined and leaving the car in gear that should take care of the actual parking, but as for manoeuvring into and out of a sloped parking spot, this sadly is the achilles heel of the robotic system. My advise would be to avoid parking on a steep slope if possible, but if you can't, then try to leave yourself a clear entry / exit so that you aren't hitting the anti-stall / slipping the clutch for extended periods. Try to park in such a way that you can get the clutch fully engaged and drive away to level surface.

 

[mjheathcote]

The oil pressure issue certainly isn't right. The problem is I guess is whether the car was given a good road test to warm up the engine when they carried out the inspection. When cold the pressure of course would remain high, normally, until warmed up. Hopefully it's a sender issue.
What mileage has your car done?

 

[conaero]

Thanks everyone.

Shall give Autofficina a ring tomorrow for sure. Just wondered if it was a common quirk.

Parking the thing is pretty scary...any tips.


Didn't realize that when Belfast Brakes reline the handbrake shoes, they would require a lot of filing to refit. Why don't they just make them back up to oem spec?


Thanks

This is a little worrying to me. For this not to be picked up on an inspection, I think you should have a right moan, next to the clutch, and cats, this is one of those vital things that should be checked.

Hopefully, its just the sender, they do go, mine did, replaced it and all was fine, but there are some issues with the combined water/oil pump failing, you need to have this checked before you drive any further.

 

[mjheathcote]

This is a little worrying to me. For this not to be picked up on an inspection, I think you should have a right moan, next to the clutch, and cats, this is one of those vital things that should be checked.

Hopefully, its just the sender, they do go, mine did, replaced it and all was fine, but there are some issues with the combined water/oil pump failing, you need to have this checked before you drive any further.

The water/oil pump failing did cross my mind too, but didn't want to scare unnecessarily at this stage!

 

[conaero]

Mike, me too but he needs to know.

9 times out of 10 it's the sender. It's about £90 and takes an hour to replace. It's very tricky to do at home unless you take the plenum off.

 

[2b1ask1]

Thanks everyone.

Didn't realize that when Belfast Brakes reline the handbrake shoes, they would require a lot of filing to refit. Why don't they just make them back up to oem spec?


Thanks

When they reline the handbrake shoes they are back to OEM diameter however your drums will have some wear so will be slightly bigger ID than the effective OD of the shoes, vis to get the best of the relined shoes you can'fit' them to the drums by holding them into the drum and passing them back and forth a few times under mild pressure lift them away and look at the contact points, this will start off as just the middle section so lightly file off the polished part, repeat untill you achive complete contact = efficient handbrake operation......

Miles filing the pads is a different issue I believe to be linked to Green Grippers being oversized and needing easing!

 

[2b1ask1]

Ok I cannot find the thread I did when I did mine but here are photos of what you can expect to find...

They are no more complex than the old drums on a Cortina or other old car, you just have to remove the disk brake calliper out of the way to get the disk/drum off....

Not very pretty in there and if you have to move the car during the work withdraw the handbrake actuator out of the plate otherwise it will get mangled! I know because I did this....

 

[Taliesyn]

There's a very good post about adjusting the handbrake on this site, I was looking at it yesterday, very detailed description with great photos.

 

[rossyl]

Thanks guys.

Car is a 2004, 48k. It did have a 40min drive before its PPI so was well warmed up.

I didn't get the chance to phone Autofficina as I was out all day. I did take the car for a drive 30mins each way with a 2 hour gap in the middle. No warning light at all.

Its getting brakes done this week, bumper respray the following week, so will be a couple of weeks before I can get it looked at. Was hoping to leave it till its MOT and service in October, but if you think I should get it checked out before please let me know.

As for the handbrake it does hold the car but you have to pull it right up. So that's my mistake, and it's as flagged in the PPI. But it does point to reclining needing doing.