sometimes i get a flashing oil light. it usually comes on when i stall the car (not saying im a noob and cant drive stick) but it happened in a drive through when i had to lean out the window to get my food, my foot slipped. anyways. it comes on every once in a while. i know it means low oil pressures but that cant be it. im running castrol gtx high mileage 10w 40.
FLASHING means important. get ur motor checked. just cuz u have oil doesn’t mean u have sufficient oil pressure. get ur motor checked or check it urself right away… cuz if u don’t u could have a motor that goes BOOM! its highly doubtful that the oil pressure sending unit sensor thing is malfunctioning, cuz if it was u’d more than likely just have the light be on for the oil. but flashing means low. so get it checked.
curious, u using a fram oil filter?
no im using a mobil 1 filter. it hardly comes on though. i really dont feel like spending 500 bucks to have someone look at my motor. if you know what i mean. the thing is, it could be alot of things wrong, either bad sensor, bad oil pump. idk. what would i have to look for if i was going to diagnos it myself??
ive looked hard on this topic on the internet. lots of people have had this same issue but no one has replied how they fixed it or what was wrong with it. basically they just say the problem and people give them a list of like 10 things and the person that posted never responds. im sure someone on this forum has had this same problem and knows what to do.
check your oil pressure
if u don’t have diagnostic tools or can’t get a hold of them then you’ll need to find someone that can or pay someone that can. there’s no beating around the bush on this one. if its ur oil pump… what do u plan to do about it? common sense man… if u were loosing blood or ur blood pressure was like zero… do u ask urself what can u do to check it without going to the hospital? no! u get ur ass to the hospital asap.
if u lack lubrication at any time… especially higher in the rpm range… u can possibly blow something, most likely spin a bearing… or worst… like blow a hole in ur block.
well, my car just sits on the street in front of my house. im held up because my header and downpipe are in the mail. im going to check the oil pressure switch and ill find a way to check the pressure. as soon as i get my exhaust fixed, ill take it to get looked at. ive been turning on my car alot even though i dont drive it. i havent seen it come on in a long time now. of course i replaced some coolant hoses and vaccume lines, of course that probably does nothing. mabe my oil filter is getting old. ive ran 5w30 through it along with my 10w40 and a buch of addatives. mabe i just need to put on a new filter and put in 10w30 with no addatives. idk but im going to do what i can while my car is held up on the exhaust.
Dude, I have 90 RS that has a random oil light every now and then. I think it has to do with somthing behind the dash. What I do to check my oil sender to c if it is working is…Get a 12v tester light. Un hook ur single wire to the pressure unit, and clip the aligator clip of the tester to it. Then touch the tester to a 12v positive(like ur battery) and if there is no light, ur good. Do this while car is running.
Also FYI,dont put mixed oil and additive in ur engine. It doesnt like that. 5w30 is just fine. If ur not burning anything there’s no point to it.
well, i got the oem manual for free and in like new condition at the junk yard!!! it says 5w30 or 10w30. so im going to bump down from 10w40 to 10w30 and see what that does. would my o2 sensor have anything to do with it?? it hasnt been hooked up so before, after like 10 min my check engine light would come on.
yes, i burn a little oil, of course lots of old bseries do. especially i know mine has been abused even though it has like 70k on a swap.
O2 sensor will throw a check engine light. But won’t be for the oil. Try the method I stated earlier to c if it is a fluke.
sigh the method is a good idea for a STEADY oil light that is on. but if it comes on and FLASHES repeatedly in the fashion that it is warning you… then your method isn’t useful. you’re method just shows whether or not the light works on the dash. that does not diagnose the actual oil pressure sensor. if u wanted to diagnose just the light… then u could just put the key in, put it to on, and see if the light comes on. that is basically a self check for all the lights that are related with car, except turn signals pilot light, high beam light indicators in the cluster, etc.
and if i ain’t mistaken… isn’t there only 1 wire to that oil pressure sensor? not 100% that is why i’m asking. cuz if there is only 1 wire to the sensor, then that means that the light in the dash is fed power. then ur oil pressure sensor is the ground. when the car is on and isn’t running, there isn’t any pressure, that is why that oil light should be on. then… once u turn it on, the motor builds up pressure… then the sensor opens the circuit. causing the light to not to have a ground so the light doesn’t come on.
by testing the back of that wire… that u hooked a test light too… u are just extending the circuit. by touching it to a 12v power source, all u did was give the light 2 power sources both positive… its not gonna light up, it needs a ground. try doing ur trick but touching a body part or the block. you should get a different end result.
[QUOTE=Squeezethis;2038073]cuz if u don’t u could have a motor that goes BOOM!
[/QUOTE]
haha thats some funny shit
lol i know. my sister did that one time. well it was just the steady oil light, wasn’t flashing in her saturn something. basically she drove it like that for over a month without telling anybody, then one day i get a call, her car died on the freeway. went got it towed home… get home, inspect it… was checking the oil dipstick, nothing, i ask her when the last time she checked the oil… “i dunno, a while.” so i go to put the dipstick back in… no freaking luck. i go to inspect the block… and behind the exhaust manifold… look at what i see… A HUGE FREAKING HOLE THAT COULD FIT MY FIST! got my finger in there a bit… not a single trace of freaking oil… was some oil residue, but nothing felt like it had been lubricated recently.
so there… her saturn went BOOM!
[QUOTE=Squeezethis;2038177]sigh the method is a good idea for a STEADY oil light that is on. but if it comes on and FLASHES repeatedly in the fashion that it is warning you… then your method isn’t useful. you’re method just shows whether or not the light works on the dash. that does not diagnose the actual oil pressure sensor. if u wanted to diagnose just the light… then u could just put the key in, put it to on, and see if the light comes on. that is basically a self check for all the lights that are related with car, except turn signals pilot light, high beam light indicators in the cluster, etc.
and if i ain’t mistaken… isn’t there only 1 wire to that oil pressure sensor? not 100% that is why i’m asking. cuz if there is only 1 wire to the sensor, then that means that the light in the dash is fed power. then ur oil pressure sensor is the ground. when the car is on and isn’t running, there isn’t any pressure, that is why that oil light should be on. then… once u turn it on, the motor builds up pressure… then the sensor opens the circuit. causing the light to not to have a ground so the light doesn’t come on.
by testing the back of that wire… that u hooked a test light too… u are just extending the circuit. by touching it to a 12v power source, all u did was give the light 2 power sources both positive… its not gonna light up, it needs a ground. try doing ur trick but touching a body part or the block. you should get a different end result.[/QUOTE]
My method works! It workx for flashing or solid light. Ur just testing the sensor. I’ve done it, as well as my friends. Do whatever, just putting in my .02¢.
im not saying my light flashes all the time. just like once every 2 days or so. its just plain randomness. when i was installing my cold air intake, by the intake manifold there is 3 metal tubes that are like fused togeather, one goes from the valve cover to the intake, one is a vacume line that goes form some thing on the intake manifold to the intake, and another one is a coolant line that goes from the intake manifold down by the transmition. any way the coolant line part of the metal tube was bent in like a 90 degree angle so no coolant was getting by, i replaced everything with new hoses. i dont know if that has anything to do with it though. i think i just need an oil change, ive put so much addatives and crap in the oil. when i check the dip stick its like really light brown and has bubbles in it sometimes.
i had the problem on my 90 db1. i actually took it to an acura-honda shop. well 100 bucks later they told me it was ok. they did check the oil presure & the flow too. they told me they also took off the bottom oil pan to see if anything was clooged :think: but i did get new oil & all that good stuff… n e ways might as well pay small now or pay BIG later! :whisper:
Heres a fact…I had a b18a1 in when this started happening. Somtimes it would stay on or fade, or flash. When I swapped to a b16, it still did it. So, which leads me to believe that it is just a harness error somewhere behind the dash. Maybe a ground or somthing. Doesn’t affect the performance of my motor. Just annoying. Nothing to worry about if you just do the test on ur pressure switch.
The bubbles are from all the additive in there. Its frothing up, and that is not good. If ur burning oil, just use heavier weight, fuck all the additives. Or fix ur motor.
well well well. mr nick here wasn’t clear about his symptoms. does it flash, like on and off. but in steady flashing sequence like ur turn signals? or does it come on, then stays on for a sec, u hit a bump, then it goes away kind of deal. cuz if its the latter then u have a loose connection.
and yes koolkid420, ur method works, but i’m still saying that all you are testing is the cluster and the wiring too it since all you did was hook up a test light to the wiring that goes to the oil pressure sensor.
if u wanna test the oil pressure sensor thing, you’d need to check of whether u have continuity like when the car is cold. and also once the oil and everything has reached its normal operating temps. u didn’t hook anything up to the oil pressure sensor, so u couldn’t of tested it.
and thats the fact. if u want i’ll even bust out the wiring diagrams and show u… but i don’t really care.
for lights that randomly short out is usually bcuz there is a short behind the cluster, or a short somewhere in the engine harness.
nick: also since u messed with a coolant line… u should’ve bled ur cooling system afterwards cuz u introduced some outside air into the system.