Oil Pressure Light

GWAPITO69 · 03-30-2004, 05:01 PM

my oil pressure light stays on when my engine is hot. but it disappear when i accelerate. what do you guy's think about this? and could anyone tell me where the oil pressure sensor is located. is it easy to replace or not? thanks

Jared at Pelican Parts · 03-31-2004, 06:24 AM

Did you check the oil level?

What grade oil are you using?

HOw many miles are on the car?

GWAPITO69 · 03-31-2004, 08:16 AM

the level is good. and the grade is 10w30. my car only has 110000 on it. so i don't know if it's the oil pressure sensor that's bad.. my car's been in the garage for almost 1 1/2 years due to all sorts of problem.

Jared at Pelican Parts · 03-31-2004, 08:18 AM

You should be running 20/50.

Does it have this problem only at idle?

GWAPITO69 · 03-31-2004, 08:33 AM

when i accelerate the light goes off but when i stop it light backs again. so i have to change the oil to 20/50 then. thanks for the info. do you know where's the oil pressure sensor is located? is it hard to replace? i'm trying to do the maintenance by myself since it cost a lot less

BMW Boogie · 03-31-2004, 03:31 PM

A lot of the time, when you switch to a synthetic oil, it cleans the varnish & sludge out of the oil passages. Kinda like a person with high blood pressure. Clean that out & the pressure drops somewhat. But the result is lots & lots of good clean oil is being delivered to where it is needed. Was the engine just switched to synthetic? Or, had the car needed an oil change for a long time? Even new petroleum oil has enough detergents to clean out those passages.

I believe if you'll look in your owner's manual, the factory tells you that your oil light coming on at the stop light is not a big thing.

If you feel you must change to a higher viscosity, try the next step which is 10W-40 first, before going to a 20W-50. Reason is, is that the thicker the oil, the less gas mileage you will get. Not a huge difference, but somewhat less gas mileage.

GWAPITO69 · 03-31-2004, 04:18 PM

we just change the oil pan about 3months ago and of course we have to change the oil also and we use 10/30 then and even before that it was doing thesame thing. i tried to drive it to work which is about 30 miles from my house but i got scared when the light came on on the freeway on traffic. i barely use my car because of this problem and a and few more stuff... like idle goes up and down between 600-800rpm. but this is one of the main problem i'm having.. i want to use the car because i'm putting a lot of miles on my new car. thanks for all the info. i just want to do the maintenance by myself and hope it wont cost a lot to fix it.

GWAPITO69 · 03-31-2004, 04:19 PM

oh yeah i don't have an owner's manual since i got this car at an aunction here in long beach. it's not synthetic either just 10/30

BMW Boogie · 03-31-2004, 06:27 PM

do a search on "idle". It is probably a vacume leak. Check/replace your oxygen sensor & coolant temperature sensor. They send signals to your computer. Buy a Bentley manual for the car. In it are trouble shooting techniques that will help you eliminate problems one by one. It will also tell you where the oil pressure sensor is & how to check it. I strongly suggest you go to Amsoil synthetic. It is the only one that will protect your engine with "boundary lubrication" - if your engine starves of oil during idle, early morning dry starts, oil pump failure. I order it from this woman's web page: www.lubedealer.com/par1 She lives in my area, but the oil will be shipped from somewhere in your area. Good luck!