Hi Josh,
I do not want to scare you, but thats exactly how things started with my
87 Vanagon. I ignored it 100km too long and lost in the meantime an
entire rod bearing (I could not find any material when I opened it --
completely gone into small pieces), as something was stuck in the oil
galley. I ended up stripping down everything to get to the crank and
rebuilt the entire engine as I had all these metal pieces in it.
You can certainly change the spring (don't stretch it, its cheap to buy
a new one), its easily accessible, but i would rather recommend to add
an oil pressure gauge to have a better idea how bad it is. These senders
only tell you, you are below the limit (0.9bar above 2000rpm, 0.3bar
below 2000, or is it different for synchros? I don't know), but what if
you only have say 1 bar at 3000rpm, not good either!

I am also fairly new and there are many people here on the list that
know these things way better, I just wanted to mention that this is
something I would look into before you go on a long trip. After the
first indication, I did not have that many km to drive until a very loud
noise out of the engine ;-(

Cheers
Thomas

Josh Ziady wrote:
> Hello all. I am new to the list, so forgive me for rehashing what
> seems to
> be a common issue, but one that has some wierd particulars I have not
> seen
> in any discussions thus far. I have I have an '87 syncro GL.
> Occasionally,
> but not always, the oil pressure light and buzzer will come on, stay
> on from
> anywhere from 1 to 10 seconds, and then (almosts always) go off. This
> only
> happens after a period of highway speed driving, and especially when I
> slow
> down on an exit ramp. I talked to a mechanic, who suggested that (1) the
> decrease in speed could cause a temporary drop in oil pressure, (2)
> the wire
> to the lower sender could be grounding out and (3) that the spring to the
> relief valve (I think) could be bad (and that this issue could be
> solved by
> stretching the spring thus making it a bit stiffer). Or, the bearings
> could
> be bad. I am using 20w-50 oil, and the van runs well otherwise. It is not
> overheating (just had head gaskets replaced, and leak down tests say they
> are good now). Another mechanic replaced a bad sender, drove it a
> bunch, and
> couldn't replicate the problem. I want to do a long trip soon, and I
> don't
> want burn up my engine. Any ideas?
>
> Josh Ziady
>