So I drive a Chrysler Sebring Convertible (Touring edition. Not sure whats different about it but it sounds fancy) with about 60,000 miles on it. Bought it used from a car dealership about 10K miles ago.
So whats happening is about a month ago the head gasket blew. I took it into a guy I think is on the level and he said he couldn’t see any damage to the engine and went and replaced the head gasket. Drove it off the lot and about 10 miles down the road the Oil pressure light came on. So, I took it back to him ASAP. Turns out the oil sending unit was bad. He did a pressure test to make sure it was holding good oil pressure and said the engine was holding it within manufacturer’s limits. So, I drive it away and again the Oil pressure light comes on and now the Check Engine light is back on. Sadly I cant get it back to a mechanic for a couple of days and I have to use it this weekend to drive to a town and back about 30 miles away. So I was hoping maybe some one had some ideas about what has gone wrong.
A note about the lights:
The oil pressure light come ons when idling but not when at speed. And the check engine light is on constantly from the moment I turn the car over. From what little driving of it I have done, the car doesnt show any kind of performance issues. I’ve checked for an oil leak and havent found any, and its literally just gotten done being in the shop. It doesnt have an oil pressure gauge, but for the engine temperature everything seems pretty normal.
Any ideas? I’m really ready to pull my hair out over this. A month without my car and its still not fixed. Could it be a problem with the computer needing to be reset since it had all that work? If so will it do anything bad if I drive it too much? Is the engine just too worn out? I hope not since it hasent even hit 100K yet. Any suggestions?
A properly working sensor trips the oil pressure light at a dangerously low pressure of 6-7 psi. If that is happening at idle with the engine fully warmed up, that is an indication of worn bearings in the engine.
If the mechanic checked the oil pressure with a calibrated gauge with the engine cold or only slightly warm, it could skew the readings. The oil pressure needs to be read with the car fully warmed up. Oil viscosity thins as it heats up, so cooler oil will show higher pressure than a heated oil.
If the readings at idle, fully warmed, show low oil pressure, a thicker oil can delay the inevitable. Try 10w40 if you use a w30 oil. Otherwise, you may need to step up to 20w50.
As far as the CEL, “Check Engine light”, the codes must be pulled before we know the nature of that fault. It is in the form of Pxxxx, where the x’s are numbers.
I wouldn’t drive it until you’ve confirmed that the oil pressure is good. What was the nature of the blown head gasket? They can fail in several ways–coolant getting into the oil, coolant getting into the exhaust, combustion gases getting into the coolant and causing overheating, compression leak between two cylinders.
You can retrieve the basic codes without a scanner by turning the ignition on-off-on-off-on in rapid succession. (do not start the car) The codes will either be displayed on the odometer or blink out on the check engine light. http://www.troublecodes.net/chrysler/
While the article says that 96 and later vehicles require a scanner, I’ve found that this process still works with all Chrysler vehicles I’ve tried it on, with the exception being some vehicles that are rebadged vehicles from other manufacturers, as part of a partnership agreement.
Post back what you retrieve. If you are getting P0524, the check engine light is turning on due to the detected low oil pressure.
The on-off procedures worked with my 87 and earlier Ghrysler products, it did not work on my 2002 Town and Country (3.3 Chrysler engine) . Also this on-off will give you 2 digit codes