my oil light glows dim and then comes on every once in a while at stop signs .as soon as i drive away it goes out and stays out. any ideas? and yes it's full of oil.
- posted
18 years ago
my oil light glows dim and then comes on every once in a while at stop signs .as soon as i drive away it goes out and stays out. any ideas? and yes it's full of oil.
That's a sign the oil pressure is dropping to below 7 psi at idle, allowing the OP switch to close, turning on the light. It could be main bearings going out, plugged oil pickup screen, failing oil pump or possibly coolant in the oil. I've never trusted idiot lights for oil pressure and have installed a real oil pressure gauge on every car I've ever owned that that didn't already have a factory gauge.
More often it's a bad oil pressure indicator sensor. I've had this happen on old Chrysler products and every time it was cured by replacing the sensor. It's cheap and easy to do. But do get the correct special socket; if you try using a conventional deep socket, you will probably damage the sensor's shell and cause an oil leak.
Oh, by the way, what kind of car, Randy? You never did tell us. The cars I had it happen on were 1970s vintage, with a Slant Six, a 318, and a 400. As I said: none of them had a real oil pressure problem, as confirmed by a check with a mechanical oil pressure gauge; they were all bad sensors, three of them.
Double post (with no year make and model?) If the sending unit is leaking oil it will short out the wire and cause the lite to turn on, assuming that the oil level is ok and clean, replace the switch, clean out the connector really good and that means to disassembled it when doing it. Also the next time you post something, give the year make and model
Glenn Beasley Chrysler Tech
It is also very often a sign of a bad "oil pisser switch" - so nicknamed because of their propensity to leak oil. If some oil gets from the "pressure" side to the "non-pressure" side it raises the amount of actual pressure required to turn off the light. As it oozes out the pressure required drops again, making the light come on and off at different pressures depending on temperature etc.
Check pressure with a mechanical guage - and most likely replace the switch.
Wowwwwwwww, this is the most responses i have ever gotten to a ? thank you all very much. i'm sorry for not posting more info the first time. my car is a 1998 dodge stratus es with v6 and 120,000 miles. i have changed this oil every 3000 miles since new. and have run synthetic oil and some prolong and slick 50 occasionally. i will read all of the posts and see what my next atep is. thanks again Randy
where is this switch located, how much and is it a hard job? i do most of the work on my cars myself. thanks
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