Blinking oil light and buzzer flashes

Hi James,

I suspect the replacement sensor you got may not be the correct pressure range for your specific vehicle. I went to autozone.com and searched for oil sensors for your year vehicle, and several of them came up. I noted two in particular that looked identical except for one specification; the "bar", or pressure rating for them. One of them was listed as 1.20-1.60 bar, while the other is rated for 0.30-0.60 bar.

If your car took the lower rated one and normally runs at, say 0.45 bar and you put in the wrong one that's expecting more like 1.20 bar at a minimum, then yeah, it's going to be going off all the time because the sensor isn't getting the pressure it expects. Obviously this is just an example since I would expect one in this example to come on and stay on all the time, but that's the general idea.

I'd suggest you go to a VW dealer website and look up the correct factory part for your car. The example I looked at actually mentioned the correct pressure range for the sensor; in this case it called for 0.30-0.60 bar, which would kind of agree with my theorizing. Here's the page; I'd suggest you put in the submodel or VIN number to double-check to make sure this is the correct one for you.

2002 Volkswagen Jetta Engine Oil Pressure Switch - 036919081D - Genuine Volkswagen Part

Once you know the correct part number and/or bar rating, you can use that information to locate aftermarket parts much cheaper than the factory parts will cost you. Unless you want to just punt the whole issue and don't mind spending the extra; entirely up to you, of course.