Low oil pressure (?) help needed

Post by **ereg340** » 10 Aug 2004 10:48 am

The oil light on my 340 comes on for a couple of seconds then goes out when I pull away too sharply or acceralate too hard in a low gear , also It started to come onwhen going round roundabouts. I've checked the oil level and its seems fine, so I asume it must be low oil pressure ? any ideas?. I ruined my last car a Nissan Micra in January by ignoring the oil light coming on on the dashboard for 5 months until the engine siezed up and , I kept checking the oil level and thought it would be alright. as you can probably guess I'm not too hot on the mechanical side of things

Thanks,
Will (ereg340)

Post by **wjp01908** » 10 Aug 2004 04:08 pm

Could be an electrical problem with the sender or it`s wiring - shorting out on acceleration or under g forces on cornering. Give it a wiggle with the engine running and get someone to sit in the car to see if the light comes on.

If this checks out OK, I`d check the oil pressure, or get a mechanic to do it for you. I`m not sure what this should be exactly but will check later.

Do you have any other symptoms of low pressure eg knocking, light taking a long time to go out on start up etc.?

It may be worth flushing the system (you can get some stuff that you add to the oil and drive around for a while- any car accesory shop should have it) and changing the filter and oil in case of blockage.

Until you get it sorted avoid the situations that cause it - tricky I know with roundabouts - take `em slow!

Will

Post by **2.3litre 343** » 10 Aug 2004 06:44 pm

Remove the sump and clean out the oil strainer on the oil pick up pipe from the pump. On older cars, these have a tendancy to sludge up making it hard for the pump to suck up oil. Also check the pump itself for wear as it may not be working at full efficiency.