Low oil pressure?

[CrashBandit]

First off, I do not have an owners manual for my DA. My oil light has been flashing on/off for a couple days now. I've put cardboard under the motor to find leaks and I only seem to be leaking PS fluid..I searched on here and read that when the light blinks, it means the pressure is low. I've put almost 3/4ths of a qrt in and it'll still flash on/off and my oil doesn't seem low when I pull the dip stick.

So now I'm assuming it could be the oil pump, faulty fuse or electrical problem. My question is, will my car be OK to drive as long as I keep a close eye on my oil level? I haven't noticed a lack of power or anything, no smoke coming out of exhaust. I have court tomorrow so this will have to wait til I have money to get it looked at. Just seeing that icon flash red makes me cringe a little that I may be f***ing something up major and will be out of an engine or something.

[mirrorimg]

Having the engine topped off in oil does not mean the oil is getting to the places it needs to in order to lubricate the engine. The randomly blinking light may be because of a faulty sensor, that is located on the back of the block above/left of the oil filter. I would suggest replacing that. There is a small wire that should be connected to it. Make sure that is actually connected before replacing the sensor.

While you are replacing it, you should hook up a manual oil pressure gauge to verify the oil pressure is where it needs to be. It would be beneficial to do this at this time, rather than having to do it all over again if the new sensor still causes the light to blink.

[CrashBandit]

Originally Posted by mirrorimg

Having the engine topped off in oil does not mean the oil is getting to the places it needs to in order to lubricate the engine. The randomly blinking light may be because of a faulty sensor, that is located on the back of the block above/left of the oil filter. I would suggest replacing that. There is a small wire that should be connected to it. Make sure that is actually connected before replacing the sensor.

While you are replacing it, you should hook up a manual oil pressure gauge to verify the oil pressure is where it needs to be. It would be beneficial to do this at this time, rather than having to do it all over again if the new sensor still causes the light to blink.

Thanks for the feedback mirrorimg. I'll check the sensor this weekend, I'm positive it is something electrical. I also noticed that after I put about 1/2 tank of gas in, the light has yet to flash.. I don't see how the two could correlate to each other but..idk.

Would Advanced Auto/Pep Boys/etc carry a manual pressure guage? I've asked a few of my friends and they don't have one.

[Prozon]

Yes, most major autoparts stores should stock a gauge.

[CrashBandit]

Got a local mechanic shop to look at my DA, said it is my oil pump that's going bad. Thank god it's not anything more serious. They quoted me 6 hours for labor and around $575 for parts/labor/oil change/etc. Seems a little pricey to me, any opinions?

[Prozon]

Did you ever hook up an oil gauge yourself?

[CrashBandit]

I asked the shop to check the pressure. My girlfriend went to high school with one of the mechanics, I trust them. They called back couple hours later and said it turned out to be the oil pump, they checked the oil pan and didn't find anything, wasn't a bad sensor or oil filter. I called Advance Auto and they quoted me $205 as opposed to the shop's $240something. I have horrible cell phone service where I live so calling around is complicated, but I'm going to call the Honda dealership tomorrow and see what they'll quote.
How complicated is it to change the pump? Could it be done in a weekend?

[Prozon]

Yes it could. There's a guide floating around somewhere on how to do it.

Any idea on the oil pressure you had?