Oil Pressure light on at idle

[noSHO]

I took the car out to Wendy's for dinner, not a far drive, and when I came back, I was rounding a corner in the parking garage to pull into a space, and I noticed the oil pressure light (the red one that comes on at startup) was flickering on. I was idling around a corner, and when I pulled into the spot I let it sit there for a second while I watched it flickering. I revved the engine to 2000 for a second and the light disappeared. When it came back down the light was on again. Like I said though, it isn't solidly on, but flickering. I checked the oil level, and it seems alright, but it was hard to tell with the poor amber lights in the garage. It wasn't more than one quart low, of that I am positive. I just added half of a quart on Monday before I hit the road back to school. Car seems to run fine (although I didn't let it sit there with that light on for very long at all), and I traced my car's path back a little and didn't find any oil at all anywhere on the ground, and it was not leaking any at all. What gives?

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-Dave
green/black 92

 

[94ShoOff]

What kind and weight of oil are you using?

 

[noSHO]

5W-30 Valvoline Maxlife. 5.5qts with the larger filter.

 

[Bizzy]

I don't know what the problem could be but from what I've heard if that light comes on it's best to shut her down immediately.

Keep us posted when you find out anything. Sure hope it's nothing serious!

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SHO's are like kids...they test your patience but you gotta love 'em!

Beth
'91 Plus MTX, Mostly stock
K&N Filter, Coneless
Colgan Custom Bra
Racing Series Driving Lights
Mods in the works
Many items on wish list!

 

[sdpatt]

The clearances in your engine may be sufficiently large that the 5W oil is not heavy enough to let the pump maintain the necessary pressure to keep the oil pressure sensor happy. Have you noticed this light coming on before? If it just started happening, it may be due to a changing setpoint on the sensor (or, heaven forbid, bearing damage). A new sensor could correct the changing setpoint situation. The oil pressure light is only a function of the pressure, not the level (unless there is NO oil).


Scott

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Scott

1991, 254K miles, glass hood, police grill, SVO shifter, Catz fogs,
K&N, 73mm MAF, Superchip, PP Y-pipe, Borla cat-back, 190 lph pump
Eibach/Tokico/polyurethane, SHO Shop front & rear strut braces,
16x7.5" Moda R1, 225/55ZR16 Bridgestone RE730, -1 deg camber x 4,
6 disc CD, Class II hitch, Silver award at SHOklahoma Car Show

 

[noSHO]

Right, Scott. I just wanted to make sure I still HAD oil, since the low oil light never came on. Just a precautionary measure. The manual calls for 5W-30 though, right? I run 10W in the summer, but put in 5W for the winter (something you wouldn't know about!!

). I guess if it's a spun bearing, the damage is already done. I might go start her tomorrow and see what happens. It did just start happening tonight.

 

[SHODUDE]

If you spun a bearing, you would know it for sure.

If your into doing your own maintenance, I would pull the pan and check out a couple of the rod bearings and #3 main.

If your not into it, change the oil or sensor, or both and see what happens.

Was your water temp high, or high enough to keep the fans on?



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[noSHO]

Originally posted by SHODUDE:
If you spun a bearing, you would know it for sure.


Was your water temp high, or high enough to keep the fans on?

That's what I thought, but then again, it happened when I was about 20 feet away from my parking spot, so I just rolled in and didn't have to even give the car any gas. The water temp was alright, but like I said, I didn't leave it on for long like that, I was lucky I was so close to where I needed to be.

 

[Rich92forSHO]

I personally would change the oil filter and the pressure sender and see if it does it again. If it does I would shut it off immediately and check the oil pump and lines.

------------------
Rich Boyd and his ol' 92
"Give me that last hp!"
"If I can afford it!"

 

[noSHO]

Here's a little update:

Well it's been a little while, and I haven't been driving the car much (I miss the fun), but the light has gotten stranger. The light does not come on upon startup. It does, however, come on after about 10-15 minutes of driving. It will begin to flicker very faintly at idle, then it gets
stronger, and the light flickering moves to ~1000, and then after maybe 5 minutes of driving the light will flicker at ~1200. I keep the revs up at a stop, and always try to keep them in the 3000 range when moving in slow traffic. By the time I made it back to the parking garage, about 10 minutes after the light originally came on, it was on full blast no flickering at idle. The odd thing was that the car seemed fine. It idled fine and I didn't seem to hear any odd noises. If I was going to spin a bearing, wouldn't it have done so already? How long can you drive on low pressure before something gets screwed up?

Someone mentioned the temperature on topica, and here is some info regarding that. The car seems to heat up a little more quickly than when I'm at home, but it has always been that way while at school. Any driving that isn't done on the freeway is done in the 0-20mph range, so there isn't a whole lot of air moving across the engine. I have to get far out of the city to really go significantly above 25mph. Anyway, the temp seemed to be up a little from normal, but like I said, all the driving I did save for the 2 mins on the freeway was stop and go and/or at <20mph. When I got on the freeway, she cooled down to the usual operating temperature. This has got me thinking I'd like to do the bearings regardless of what it turns out to be. Any more ideas??

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-Dave
green/black 92, mods



[This message has been edited by noSHO (edited 02-01-2002).]

 

[94ShoOff]

Have you changed the friggin oil yet? Put in some 10-30 and see if it stills does it. I think 5-30 may be alittle light, especially how warm its been down by you.

 

[SLOSHO89]

My SHO has been doing the same thing...

I haven't driven it and haven't gotten a chance to take it apart. Although I did change the oil from 10w-30 to just strait 30w. It didn't help!

You might try hooking up an actual oil pressure guage(like from pep boys). Then you can see the actual pressure. Make sure you get a gauge w/ lots of numbers/increments 0..5..10..15....100 as opposed to 0..20..40....100

My motor runs fine, idles fine but I know the oil pressure is low.

The way the oil light works is it turns on at 6psi. Normaly you should have around 10-12 psi @ idle. Also about 8-10 psi for every 1,000 RPM. So at 3,000 RPM you should have about 24-30 psi.

Keeping the rev's up isn't necsisarily(sp?) going to help. It will just make you feel "better" because the light is not on.

On my car, the oil pressure is low over the whole "oil pressure band".

Without oil, the bearings will start to wear out because they're missing the protective cushion.

I don't know how long you can go B4 screwing things up, but if they are already messed up it can only get worse so it'd be better to not drive it.

Efren

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Slicers, SHO+ hood and spoiler.
SHO SHOP Y-Pipe

Silver-Blue '66 Mustang Fastback
E-mail, [email protected]
AIM; SLOSHO89 I like to talk SHOs

[This message has been edited by SLOSHO89 (edited 02-01-2002).]

 

[Shoman94]

Originally posted by noSHO:
I took the car out to Wendy's for dinner, not a far drive, and when I came back, I was rounding a corner in the parking garage to pull into a space, and I noticed the oil pressure light (the red one that comes on at startup) was flickering on. I was idling around a corner, and when I pulled into the spot I let it sit there for a second while I watched it flickering. I revved the engine to 2000 for a second and the light disappeared. When it came back down the light was on again. Like I said though, it isn't solidly on, but flickering. I checked the oil level, and it seems alright, but it was hard to tell with the poor amber lights in the garage. It wasn't more than one quart low, of that I am positive. I just added half of a quart on Monday before I hit the road back to school. Car seems to run fine (although I didn't let it sit there with that light on for very long at all), and I traced my car's path back a little and didn't find any oil at all anywhere on the ground, and it was not leaking any at all. What gives?

I would change the sender since its cheap and easy. If that doesn't work then you know its something internal.


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'94 MTX Silver
Tokico Struts, Eibach Springs, Spmotorsports SubFrame Conn. 29mm ShoShop Rear sway bar, Shohop Cat back, Gutted box with K&N, '96 Brake Upgrade, White Face Guages.

 

[FordLover]

I just tore down the bottom end of a 3.2 that spun a bearing. The engine wasn't run for more than a few minutes after the knock started.
The damage is staggering. Even though only one bearing was damaged, it was almost completely gone! The crank is damaged, the connecting rod is badly worn. Also all the main bearings were scored badly, from all the metal particals being pumped around the engine.
Scott, you would cry... There is some nasty black goop on the bottom of the oil pan, and splotchy black and very deep honey color all over everything internal.
As with most of these high mileage yamaha's you can still see the cross hatch pattern when they machined the block. It had about 140K miles.
-Martin

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[noSHO]

I went and got 20w-50 Castrol GTX put in, and the light is gone and nowhere to be seen. I bogged it down to 500 even one time just to test, and it STILL didn't come on. While it's really only a band-aid to the real problem, at least I can drive it without having ot worry so much.

 

[pete c]

noSHO,

I'd worry plenty if I were you. Bearings are cheap. Pulling the crank out and having it turned is, well, it ain't so cheap. Running that 20-50 sludge might keep the light out, but, you still have a problem.

 

[sdpatt]

I would think that 10W-30 would be a much better solution and within the range of oils specified for the engine. The 20W-50 is heavier than the engine is specified for.

Scott

 

[jthomas68]

Fwiw,now with 2700 miles on my oil the Castrol GTX 10w 30 STILL shows slightly higher oil pressure than fresh 5w 30.