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Low Oil Pressure Message

orange57

orange57

New member
At what pressure does the low oil pressure warning come on? Today, as i pulled into the parking spot at work the warning came on, shut the car off immediately. Checked the oil level and it was fine, actually a little over full. Let the car sit for 14 hours and then took a big chance to get the car home. Got all the way home, and again, pulling into the driveway got a Low Oil Pressure warning. Shut the car off immediately.

I'm going to ride my bicycle to work for the next couple of days until I get this sorted. Could being over filled cause a low pressure warning due to oil frothing? Since I can't remove the drain plug, I plan to pick up a hand held vacuum pump from HF and pump out thru the dipstick tube and fill with the correct amount.

Thoughts?

Thanks,

matt
 


I'm not sure what PSI the light is set to come on at but if your lights on you need to get a gauge and hook it up to your engine to see what you've got. It could just be a faulty oil psi sensor. Hopefully it is cuz otherwise you've got a lot of different things it could be.

I doubt the frothing would cause the low PSI but I wouldn't 100% rule it out. Depends on how much over it is and if you JUST changed the oil on it and overfilled it then that could be it.

If its not frothing or a faulty sensor then it could be a worn out oil pump, worn main crank bearings, something faulty with your oil pressure bypass/relief valve, a bad gasket in the oil pump circuit ect.

I'm assuming the car your talking about is the 04 GTP in your sig. How many miles are on it and how you drive it may help narrow down what it is.
 
I have only put about 60 miles on the car. I drive pretty easy. I had the front main blow out causing a low oil preesure warning sunday. Had to walk a mile to auto zone to get oil and the drove it home, fix the seal and no more leak. I drive pretty easy for the most part.

Car has 111k on it. Is there anywhere other than the switch to tap in a real gauge?

Thanks
Matt
 
Not that I'm aware of. The sending unit for the gauge replaces the switch.

And def. check it out before driving. Usually that is called the 'replace engine" light, because by the time the oil psi gets that low its too late.
 


The car is sitting until I get a good gauge in there. The bicycle to work isn't too bad in the morning. Afternoon will be pretty miserable
 
orange57 said:
I have only put about 60 miles on the car. I drive pretty easy. I had the front main blow out causing a low oil preesure warning sunday. Had to walk a mile to auto zone to get oil and the drove it home, fix the seal and no more leak. I drive pretty easy for the most part.

Car has 111k on it. Is there anywhere other than the switch to tap in a real gauge?

Thanks
Matt
Click to expand...

If you can find a T-fitting you can remove the stock sending unit and put the T-fitting in there and then put the sending unit on one side of the T-fitting and the real gauge on the other side. I do this on all my vehicles that I have put a real gauge on so that way if I am not watching the gauge I still have the idiot light on the dash.

If your just gonna put the gauge on it and then take it off after testing there is no reason to go thru all that work tho.
 
What ever did happen with this issue? Seem's I am having the SAME EXACT issue Oil Light, Leak, Front oil Seal, Replaced: No Leak, Oil Light.

Thanks!!!
 


Follow up: I tore down into the engine block, and the connecting rods had atleast 1/4 wiggle room on 5 our of 6 Bearings. Very bad. Second Bottom End that blew out. I put another low milege bottom end in there, im thinking it is finally time to take a new block to a machine shop and have the crank;+ Properly balanced.
 
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the idea is to avoid the machine shop all together. why you just drop a used engine in. if the new used one now has a vibration your flex plate my be off its mark and is now making the engine off balance.
 
Huh? I'm referring to the roughly 14+G the engine is off balance from cylinder to cylinder from the factory. GM did not need precision on a budget build.

A machine shop is the only proper way to get a true balanced engine. Especially for an engine that will take my **** driving habits.

And I've cleaned and reconditioned every engine component there's no issue with the flex. I replaced the bottom end only. The car is back to greatness as we speak. I'm simply referring to the future. As the bottom end will take another ****.
 
you replaced the bottom end with no machine shop is what your saying?

may as well toss it in the trash if so. cause its a 200 mile engine now.

if you have it sent to a shop the cost out weighs the zero gains. your talking a couple grand when done, if not more....stock bottom ends do just fine up to 500 hp. i dont think you have that much going on yet. do you?
 


Yes your talking mg brand new bottom end strictly doing passes on a track. Fact of the **** storm is a daily driver with 100k will not handle 700hp being slammed on it everyday. And I give my engine's a lot of **** too . Don't get me wrong I love the 3800. And she does take my heavy bull****, they do wear and tear more often an easily than you think.
 
how about you tell us what your plans are for this car you beat the living crap out of daily? how are you not looking for a trans yet?

and what you've done to this bottom end. cause if the crank came out it "needs" to go to a machine shop or it wont last long with your beatings for more then 50 miles. this is not a small block Chevy engine where you slap new bearing in it and carry on. if you think this, your in for one rude awakening for sure.
 
I read a lot about people saying never to rebuild the bottom end and I can't help but wonder if it's just something blown out of proportion. I had a rod knock at around 100k miles. I'm not entirely sure how it happened but I think it may have been a mishap while I was doing my topswap install. I was getting my car tuned about 40 miles away from home when I got a horrible rod knocking noise. I drove it home, tore it apart, found a pit in a rod bearing. A few hundred dollars later I replaced all my rod and main bearings, got a remanufactured crank, and tossed it in and I'm still daily driving it 30k miles later.

I don't abuse my car but I am far from gentle to it. It sees boost damn near every time I drive it, it does a lot of short trips and city miles, and I drive it year round in Minnesota weather. It has fired right up even at -20 degrees. It's a fairly mild build right now as a topswap (higher compression) with a VS cam, 3.8 pulley, FWI, and 100% stock exhaust but eventually I'm going headers and MPS to pulley down some.

I guess what I'm getting at is that it's all a matter of luck. There are people that do everything right with 100% stock cars that break down and there are people that neglect and abuse the crap out of their car and go 200k+ with no issues.
 
you would be lucky, cause you unbolt the crank and the block will twist. why it should be align honed. if you skip this part its pretty much a dead engine in 200 miles.

we seen it happen more then a few times here.
 
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