Marco Crescenzi (Atwell, WA)

Hi Allan, I drive a ’96 model, 80 Series Cruiser DX. I’ve been 4WDing for about 5 years now and I’ve managed to see some pretty amazing places. I have a few of the usual touring accessories to make the old girl a little more capable of-road. Recently my 80 Series has been giving me some grief. It’s been bringing on the low oil level light on the dash when I’m out driving. It comes on first thing in the morning, mainly if I sit on the freeway on my way to work on a constant and steady speed, as soon as the engine’s back to idle, it goes off. The funny thing is the oil pressure seems to be reading correctly when the low oil level light comes on. So far I have no idea why its doing this?

I’d love to run the 80 up to the Cape, as well as a trip through the centre of Oz someday, but I really want to sort this problem out before I’d feel comfortable to head away. I fear that I might be doing damage to my engine even just driving around town. Is this a simple fix or is something terminally wrong?

Allan

Marco, this one is a relatively common problem on the Landcruiser, and you’ll be happy to know it’s a simple fix. You’ve got a low oil level float switch on right hand side of the sump. If you disconnect the wiring and short the wires out it should rectify the problem.

If it does, it proves the sensor has packed it in. Simply pick yourself up a new sensor, screw it in and that’s all there is to it. Good luck.