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MG MGB Technical - Check your Oil Presure Line

1 1/2 years ago, I replaced the flexible pipe for the oil presure gauge at the engine. Today it broke at the point its fitting is pressed on. There was no wrong installation, kinking, strechig, vibrations etc..

As i have installed a aditional oil warning light in my car, i switched off the ignition immediately and prevented damage to the bearings.

As this item seems to be delivered from MGOC or MOSS, i can only adwise you to check this flex pipe in your car for signs of deformation at the fittings if you have had an exchange of this spare part during the last few years.

I can als recomand to fit an oil warning light to any mechanical oil presure gauge system, it might save your engine!

Ralph

Ralph

Hi Ralph:

Glad you caught the problem before any damage to the internals of your engine. I can't remember which year your car is - did you use the oil pressure switch that controls the anti run-on valve (if your car has one) in your warning light circuit? I'd be very interested in knowing how you wired it - the sudden loss of oil pressure might not be noticed on the guage if one happens not to glance at it for awhile.

Erick
Erick Vesterback

Hi Eric,

My roadster is a 1975 car. I modified the break pressure differential light on the dash for the oil pressure warning light.

The car also had this switch for an anti run on valve that i changed with an oil pressure switch from an A-Series engine, as i have removed all that ill anti pollution installations and rebuild it to the 18 GB version of the 1965 modell.

Ralph
Ralph

There have been some previous posts on oil pressure hose failures, so it's not unusual for fairly new hoses to fail.

The contacts in the anti-run on oil pressure sensor are closed when the engine is running, a light hooked to it would be on when you have oil pressure and go out when pressure is lost. I suppose a relay could be rigged up to make a light come on when there is no oil pressure. I'm not sure if hooking a light or relay in the circuit would affrect the operation of the AR circuit.

Clifton
Clifton Gordon

Yes, this has happened before! I had a new Moss hose fail after a few hundred miles. Don't buy one. Take your old fittings and have a replacement rebuilt properly. The sizes are British pipe threads if I recall, so aren't readily available. Motorhead does this, if you don't mind the price. (Of course, 39.95 is peanuts compared to a ruined engine.) check this: http://www.motorheadltd.com/oil_flex_pipe.htm
I chose this route after my failure. No problems!
Regards
Thomas Lennon

One has to notice a warning light to do anything about it, but it *is* more likely than noticing a gauge. Not the driver of a Scimitar GTE at a hill climb a few years ago, though. He had a Mini (not a MINI) front indicator on top of his dashboard glowing brightly for all to see - except him. Drove 2 or 3 hundred yards at full bore before he stopped, but did no damage. Left a big mess at the start line though. Apart from showing small changes over time, which are as likely to make people paranoid as be informative, the oil and temp gauges are nowhere near as effective for indicating sudden and catastrophic problems as an audible and visual alarm. That (visual anyway) still wasn't enough for a couple of journos testing the MGF at launch, who seeing the engine compartment warning light come on simply carried on and wrecked the engine.
Paul Hunt 2

I had this happen a few years ago, on a Sunday, 40 miles from home on California's rt.1. Luckily, as I came around a turn I glanced at the oil gauge and found it spiraling downward. I immediately killed the engine and coasted into a diner. The cost was over $200 for a flatbed tow, but there was no damage to the engine. Ray
RAY

This thread was discussed between 17/02/2007 and 18/02/2007

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