Oil light and warning bell on a 1994 lincoln continental

Hi,

My oil light comes on peroidically. I know there is enough oil in the crankcase-- so it can't be from lack of oil. I don't change my driving speed when the alarm sounds and there is no evidence of knocking of rods or main bearings. I think it is a defective switch. Thats my problem, I don't know how to get to the switch or even where it is located. If someone could help me, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks,

Art

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Reply to
Art07
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Any coolant leaks or unexplained coolant loss?

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but your "oil light" is probably fine. Your 3.8 engine is on the way out.

Rob

Reply to
trainfan1

hi art,

I had to replace a oil pressure switch on I think 84 lincoln, mom's car.

On your 1994 Lincoln Continental 3.8L EFI , the Oil Pressure Switch is located:

Under hood, center, front engine area, above oil filter, mounted in engine block

Reply to
g

Hi "g"

Thanks so much for the information. Your answer was just the kind of advice I was looking for. I plan to go out and locate the switch and purchase the tool, and the new switch and fix it.

Thanks again,

Art

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Reply to
Art07

Realize that if the engine is high mileage, the oil pressure sender switch isn't necessarily the problem - just a symptom. The new oil sender may do the exact same thing...

If the oil pump is worn or the engine bearings way loose, the oil pressure will dip below the roughly 4 PSI at idle needed to keep the idiot light switch off. Doesn't mean you need a rebuild now, but you will have to watch it a lot closer.

The best solution is to mount a mechanical oil pressure gauge - with a properly calibrated 2-1/4" dial, not the $5 no-name auto parts 1" one with three hash marks and "0-30". Then you can see what's really going on in there.

If you don't want to mount the gauge permanently, you can run the nylon tubing up between the cowl and hood, and tape the gauge to the windshield. Or out the fender gap and taped to the fender. Then you can see it while driving.

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Reply to
Bruce L. Bergman

Bruce L. Bergman wrote:

Bruce is so right. I had a lincoln town car 1993 that the oil light flickered on and off. I bought the oil pressure switch and slapped in on and sure enough the oil pressure was low ~10PSI. So I ended up replacing the oil pump. Its a hard fix in that the whole from end has to come off including the overhead cam timing chains. The oil pump fits around the crank shaft so harmonic balancer had to come off to. A good home mechanic can do it you just need the time. The big suprise was that when I replace it and started it up the oil pressure jumped to 60psi only briefly and then back to zero. I let it run a minute longer but still no pressure and just wasn't sounding good so I turned it off and started scratching my head? After months I finally remembered that my farther had a small accident where he had spun in the snow and tapped a guard rail with the front bumper and his oil light came on and he had taken it to a mechanic who said the oil pickup tube screen had clogged. I thought maybe thats my problem! And its a big problem because you have to remove the oil pan to get to it and that requires you to jack the engine off the engine mounts about 7". I did it following the Haynes and they covered everything except one of the engine mount bolts is on the top of the mount. After that I was able to jack the engine up enough to just barely remove the oil pan. You must blindly remove the backup tube mount nut before removing the oil pan. On reinstallation I highly suggest a magnetic pickup tool so you can fish out you wrenches as if you are like me you will have a tendancy to drop them in the pan as you are cursing the lincoln engineers as you are doing the job. After removing the oil pan I found the screen had totally clogged at 141k miles. I tried to clean the screen and found it tough going so I made a engineering modification. I decided that I was NEVER going to do this job again and decided to take the oil pick tube to the grinder and ground off the screen. I know this add a risk of sending something metal to the oil pump and maybe possible oil pump damage but I'm willing to take the chance. Just make sure If you ever service the valve lifters or other maintenance on the valve bodies that you don't drop anything metal down in the oil gallies. I have added a trans magnetic on the outside of the oil pan near the pickup tube for insurance! Just wanted to give you a heads up in case this is what you have to get into!!

Skip mount bolt on the passengers side

Reply to
Skip

Town car is 4.6L SOHC V-8. Continental is 3.8L OHV V-6. Another whole different beast.

Rob

Reply to
trainfan1

If you want to get really pedantic, 1993 probably wasn't a metric motor but a 302cid or 351cid - unless they metrified what they call the old block to make people think it was a new motor design...

(I'll readily admit I'm not up on the naming conventions either, but it's gotten really screwy during the transition years to Engine Metrification.)

But even if the facts are wrong he still has a valid point - a clogged oil pickup can also be a cause of low oil pressure problems. And if the engine hasn't had regular oil changes and maintenance done, that should be checked.

Though I'd opt to clean the oil pan and the pickup screen and put the pickup back intact rather than cut the screen out, so it can't ingest fatal quantities of solid metals like a screw or nut dropped in the oil fill tube. They put that screen there for a reason.

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Reply to
Bruce L. Bergman

?

You lost me on that.

The Town Car went to the 4.6L/281 CID SOHC V-8 in 1991, it's a Modular production line V-8, longitudinally mounted RWD platform, with a crank driven/mounted oil pump. The 5.0/302 Cam-in-block OHV "Windsor" was retired in the TC after 1990.

The Continental is a 3.8L/232(or 231 depending on your math) CID Cam-in-block OHV V-6 transversely mounted FWD platform, US spec "Essex"(not the UK/German Essex) with a camshaft driven oil pump, & is known for catastrophic head gasket failure leading to eventual bearing failure before you even know your coolant is in the oil & lunching the bearings.

The two are barely related except for having "FORD" stamped on them.

My bet is still on bearing failure.

Rob

Reply to
trainfan1

The fact ford has continued to foist that peice of scrap on the car-buying public for so many years, knowing what a POS it is, should be grounds for criminal prosecution.

No wonder they've been "circling the drain" for the last few years. That engine has been trouble since its inception in what, 1982?

Reply to
clare at snyder.on.ca

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