Flickering OIL light...that goes away
 

Hi all,

My Car has had a problem since a while back, and am wondering if anyone has experienced similar symptoms:

I drive the car for 20+ miles and all is fine as long as I dont floor it or pass 3000 rpm. Now, if I drive the same or shorter distance and happen to have to pass someone and rev it up, or just simply go fast because I feel like it, after a little while my oil lamp will flicker (not steady on).

Now here is the fun part: When this happens, I turn the engine off immediately to prevent damage, however I recently noticed that if I turn the engine off, then on again while coasting for say 10 seconds, the light will go off and not come back on unless I repeat the stituation which I now know will trigger it.

I recently cleaned out the PCV system and made some other major repairs and am wondering if it may be possible for some crud to be rolling around inside the pan that gets sucked up and then clogs the oil pickup screen/mesh... then when the engine is turned off, the crud comes off and all is okay until it re-gathers?

The other scenario I think would be those famous o-rings, but woulnt the fault be consistent?

Any ideas or suggestions/experience would help.

Thanks

Oil sump o-ring in the pan.

does your lifters tick when the oil light comes on?

Best thing to do would be to install (temporary) an oil pressure gauge so you know what it is the oil pump is doing. That way you're not relaying on an idiot light for information. From what you describe though you likely are running low on pressure.

Seals in the pan a likely culprit.

+1.

Get a gauge. I actually hooked up a permanent gauge in a single A-pillar pod along with the idiot light I just found a VDO gauge and sender that had two connection posts (one for the new VDO gauge and one for the stock idiot light) and installed it in place of the factory oil pressure sender. I like being able to keep an eye on my oil pressure. If you are interested, check out egauges.com, as that is where I got my set up from

Hi fellas,

Thanks for the insight. I have not heard lifter noise, however I do notice a slight decrease in power, like if an extra AC were to kick in, lol

Anyway, I kinda suspect that I will be doing the o-ring fix sometime soon, and I do like the idea of having a permanent pressure gauge installed too.

Thanks again for the help.

l am working on my oil sump seals this week.l have an oil pressure problem thats making my lifters tick sometimes and stops.accompanied with bubbles in the oil

update
 

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to post an update on my oil pressure problem. It appears that my sump was in fact full of crap that was clogging the pickup screen when the engine ran at high RPM.

I changed the oil after servicing my PCV, however that didnt seem to be good enough since when I eventually changed my oil again, i carefully examined it to find light clumps of stuff.

I went ahead and changed it again and the problem has gone away completely, no dropping the sump, no o-rings, lucky I guess.

Now my secondary air system got mad at me, lol, so gotta' figure that one out now.

Have a great evening all.