Hi,

I used to be on this list 3 or 4 years ago and thought I would get back
on mainly because of a problem  I'm having with my '91 Carat Vanagon.
Hopefully somebody knows the solution to this problem.

A few months ago I discovered that oil was leaking out of my van at an
alarming rate. It was leaking so bad that it would cover the back
window. A local general car repair  place told me it was the oil pump
gasket. They quoted me an arm an a leg so I decided I would try to fix
it myself and put it on the back burner.

When I finally got around to working on it I discovered that the oil
leak was at the oil pressure sending unit by the oil filter. So I
changed the fitting, gasket, and the sending unit. The leak stopped but
then after driving 10-20 miles the oil light/ buzzer started coming on
at 2200 rpm.

 I bought another sending unit(genuine VW) with the same result. I
changed the other sending unit(VW) by the pushrods and also the oil
cooler gasket. I did some of the procedures in the Bentley(
disconnecting the high pressure unit-no ground and disconnectng the low
pressure unit and grounding it and they worked). I swapped out the
dynamic oil pressure control unit behind the speedometer with one out of
a '91 fox but that didn't help.
I changed the oil and filter. I currently have Castrol sae 40 and a
genuine VW oil filter.
I also changed out the oil pressure relief valve(spring,piston, and
gasket). I checked the crankcase breather it's not clogged.

This van has 122k on it. I've owned since 95k. It has an auto trans and
the original 2.1. Before the oil leak problem the light never came on.
Now I start it , the engine sounds normal, and it drives fine. After
driving about 10 -20 miles highway speeds (55-70) if I let the rpm's hit
2100-2300 for 5-10 seconds the light/buzzer come on above that-OK ,
below that-OK. It doesn't run hot or sound funny.

Is my engine or oil pump shot or is there hopefully another solution?
Sorry about the length of this posting but the details matter. Any
helpful responses are greatly appreciated.

Frustrated and desperate,
Bill Urban
Belleville, Illinois