oil light ?

What year/make/model vehicle?

If it flickers, it's most likely an oil pressure light and not an oil level light. And your oil is either way too thin when hot or you have low oil pressure for other reasons (clogged pickup screen, engine wear, etc)

Many vehicles state that it's okay to see a flicker at idle as long as it goes away at speed.

-Steve

Probably it is an oil pressure light. My car used to have the pressure needle as far to the left as it would go, when idling, but it was fine at all other times.

I'm not sure how healthy it is though. I'm sure that cars aren't designed to have the light come on during safe operation, so if I were you I would try and debug the problem.

This is the closest to the correct answer. Chances are if the oil hasn't been changed frequently, sludge has built up on the oil pump intake screen located at the bottom of the oil pan. A clogged input screen is going to cause lower pressure, and that is what is being indicated by the light. Not low oil, but low oil pressure, which can really ruin your engine if that light doesn't go out.

Frequent oil changes can prevent this from happening to begin with, but if it has already occurred, then you could drop the oil pan and resolve the situation by cleaning the pick up screen that way, although it is probably going to require your taking off the starter motor and etcetera to be able to drop the pan all the way.

Lg

A possible cause is failure of the pressure switch that causes the light to come on.

For some cars, especially older ones, what you describe is not outside normal operation. A number of things can cause low oil pressure, including failure of the oil itself (change the oil) and bearing wear.

Dan

(This account is not used for email.)

Your oil pressure is low. Get it fixed.

--scott

if you always have used regular 10-w detergent oil then just drain and replace with a fixed viscosity like 30wt.or you can drain a little and add an oil stabilizer like lucasbrand.(quart)

You'd better find out FAST if you have low or no oilpressure under those conditions. Yes, it could be a false indication, but if you lose oil pressure, the engine will quickly go looking for it.

Dont screw around with this. It gets expensive.

The OP should check the PCV system.

That's easy enough to do. On my car anyhow.

"OP...check your PCV valve and make sure you're pulling a good vaccuum out of the crankcase"

Now and then I've pulled mine and there is enough suction there to take the chrome off a trailer hitch.

BTW, re another thread, I just measured the parasitic drain on my car battery, and with the GEM module asleep, it is 11 milliamperes. Well within tolerance for this *type* of vehicle.

So: alternator is good ( voltage output ) battery is good ( load test ) parasitic load is normal ( 11 milliamperes )

must be something else going on I haven't looked at yet to cause the battery to get run down as the months go by.

An illuminated Oil Pressure light...the possible causes have been enumerated: worn bearings ( e.g leaking fluid ) clogged sump pump intake screen one other possibility, sludge in the oil galleries.

Maybe OP should run a few oil changes with *synthetic* in the hopes of disolving that gunk out of there, whatch think?

Lg

As much as you know I hate to disagree with you, you're mostly wrong. If the oil pickup was plugged, the light would probably be off at idle and come on when the RPMs come up. The restricted pickup allows plenty of oil at idle but just can't flow enough at higher speeds.

What needs to be done is for the pressure to be verified with a mechanical gauge. If the pressure is okay a new sender will probably fix it, if it's not okay he can look for problems with worn bearings, diluted oil, weak pump, etc. Bob

Finally, the right answer. To which I would add that the oil pressure sending unit may be the only thing that is bad. If posters would state the vehicle and mileage that would be a help too.

in order to fix this problem correctly you should take your car to a competent technician and have a test made of you oil pressure at an idle in park, an idle in gear, and at 1500 rpm in park, 1500 rpm in gear. then post findings here along with year, make , model, and engine size. i;ll bet ya we can figure it out.

Excuse me, but if the OP takes his vehicle to a *competent technician,* for all these tests, wouldn't same competent technician be the person to replace a defective sending unit, or correct whatever other problem is responsible for this?

I mean, when you go to a dentist, the dentist usually does the work. They don't hand you a drawing and tell you to go home and DIY.

Lg

"One who knows little but talks much" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

I guess that would depend on what the problem is. It would be pretty stupid to have the tech remove his mechanical gauge and reinstall a junk oil sender. But what if it's a 20 year old car with 200K miles, a rusted out body and the oil pressure is really only 3PSI at idle? He might dicide not to fix it and just keep it for a second vehicle. Cars sometimes go a long ways after the oil pressure gets bad enough to make the light come on at idle. There are always options. Bob

just add thicker oil and if the light stays out........forgeddaboudit.either your pump is gettin weak,your idle is too low,or your sender is slightly off or your oil is too thin.or all of the above.if you lose sufficient oil pressure you will hear your engine knocking.i'm basing this diagnosis and fix on the assumption it's an older or/and high mileage car.i had a 87 honda that did the same thing and thus my fix advice.car is still running good 4 yrs later.

Partially blocked pickup screens don't cause low oil pressure at idle, they cause it at high rpm when the flow rate is high. Assuming the pressure at idle really is low, i.e. it isn't just the sender unit, then it'll almost certainly be crank bearing/journal wear causing it. Maybe in 1 case out of

100 it'll just be the oil pump but I've never actually come across a worn oil pump where the rest of the engine wasn't worn out too.

I've never seen an engine where the oil light came on at idle that wasn't already badly worn inside. That isn't to say that such an engine won't soldier on for many more thousands of miles if driven gently but to say that a flickering oil light is ok I'd have to fundamentally disagree with.

-- Dave Baker

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

Then it's unlikely to be wear or an internal blockage with a well treated engine at that mileage so the sender itself is the favourite at the moment. It might be cheaper to just fit another one yourself than have a garage test the pressure. If the light continues to come on then the pressure will have to be tested on an independent gauge.

You could do a couple of other things.

1) Stop putting the junk additives in your engine. They won't be helping anything and may even be part of the problem.

2) You won't win any friends in here by top posting your replies.

-- Dave Baker

============================================================

Yes, I got that from Bob, indirectly. Noted and entered into logbook.

If it isn't *just the sender unit,* then I would presume, mistakenly or otherwise, that the OP has a serious problem on his hands. Also, nobody has posted the model of the vehicle, or the mileage on it. I would tend to believe a faulty sending unit in a lower mileage vehicle. On a high mileage vehicle, I could be convinced it had something to do with bearing wear. ( ware?).

That is a frightful thought, but also noted and entered into the logbook.

I'm concerned about this problem the OP has, because I don't want to end up in the same situation with my present vehicle. I'm wondering if switching to ALL Synthetic is going to prevent this from happening. Somebody? Help? Should I stick with 5W20 as recommended by mfgr or switch to synthetic NOW? I have 18,000 miles on the car to date.

Synthetic or Dino? Help!?

Lg