Oil Light

[Skytrooper]

My oil light has been coming on then going off very intermittantly. Oil level is fine, there is no oil in the coolant or vice versa. It came on again yesterday when I was coming home from work. When I stopped on the off ramp the idle was higher (1200+) and it sounded like a belt was rubbing, not really a metallic sound, but very disconcerting. It stayed this way for almost a mile and as soon as I made a left turn it immediately stopped making the noise and the light went off and stayed off. When the engine cooled down, I checked everything again and it is all good.

[Icey1174]

My oil light comes on when the oil level is in the middle of the marks on the dip stick. I add about half a quart of oil, it reads just bellow the top line on the dip stick and the oil light stays off. I am guessing I could adjust the sensor, but I assume the sensor is inside the oil pan.

Check it out and see if it works for you to take care of the oil light.

[Icey1174]

When you say belt rubbing do you mean fan belt squealing?

[Skytrooper]

It is kind of a weird sound, hard to explain. Not a belt squeal sound. No loss of power, no high engine temp, and as soon as the light went off it was like nothing ever happened. Car ran great.

[Gary2397]

Use Mahle or K&N oil filters that built in anti-drain back valve should
solve oil light issue. Mahle is an OEM part.

[Skytrooper]

I have been using the mahle filters. I use Castrol 20-50 oil with no troubles until now.

Anyone else have a suggestion ?

[tooms351]

clogged pick up? happened to my ex's 81 firebird, of course she told me after she drove it home with the light on, thats how I found the problem! It looked like a lot of sludge and don't think it had a good maint history, oh well good luck.

[Skytrooper]

I guess the first thing I should do is drain the oil and look for sludge and particles. Would running seafoam or similar product through it first be a good idea ?

[tooms351]

I've never heard of seafoam, maybe buy a mechanical oil pressure guage, not too expensive check. hook it up and see what kind if pressure you have before driving any more.

[carlege]

it also goes off when the oil pressure is in question.

[kdjones2000]

People here are talking about 2 different things, I think.

First, there is the "Oil Level" light that on later 944's will come on when the oil level is down by ~1QT. Adding oil to the engine or adjusting the sensor can help with this one.

The other situation is the "Oil Pressure" light, at the bottom of the oil pressure analog gauge. For this one, the feed from the oil pressure sensor (At least on late cars) is independent from the feed to the analog gauge itself. For me this light started going on for no apparent reason, even when the analog gauge was showing 4+ bar pressure.

Replacing the oil pressure sensor fixed the issue for me.

YMMV, Keith

[Skytrooper]

Final determination....Crank bolt had lost torque. Removed, cleaned, applied locktite and retorqued. Dorve it later in the day. All is good again. So it was the pressure that was causing the light.

Thanks for all the help guys