I had a very similar experience to a poster in October, with my oil light only coming on when I turned into my driveway. It was flickering and didn’t come on at all the next time I drove it until I turned into my driveway again. I looked in my service manual and the pressure sender looked like the only light at the end of the tunnel. This is a '92 Accord with 250,000 miles that’s been running as smoothly as ever. I got the sender at Advance and got under my car to look for the part and it doesn’t look like it attaches the same way. My next step is to go to a Honda dealer and see what their part looks like and try to coax some installation info out of them. If anyone knows how this part comes out, please let me know. Also, oil is leaking around the valve cover after replacing the gasket last year. I don’t want to do it again, but I wonder if oil can foul the wire connected to the sender. Actually, I was wondering if oil can leak out around the sender itself. Any ideas?
A 1992 with 250,000 miles? Oil is leaking around the valve cover gasket?
Don’t assume it’s the sender. I’ll bet dollars to doughnuts that the engine is worn out.
When the spaces get too big between the bearings and their respective surfaces due to wear, the oil flows through too readily and the pump has trouble keeping pressure up at idle. It’s like inflating a balloon with a leak in it.
And worn out compression rings and cylinder walls allow combustion gasses to blow by the rings, pressurize the crankcase, and force oil past gaskets.
Check the oil pressure with an actual gage and check compression while you’re at it. If the engine is tired, try a heavier base weight oil.
Don’t assume because the oil light flickers that the sender is the problem. It can very well be the sender, or as mountainbike says, a worn out engine. The engine can run fine with worn out crankshaft journals and bearings.
A test with an external oil pressure gauge could verify this.
Oil can leak out of a sending unit and that is a common problem. I’m not clear on what you mean by not looking like it attaches the same way.
Some senders have a hex on them and a standard wrench or socket will fit it. Some, like the one in the pic below, are better off installed with a special socket made just for this job. Pliers or something like that can be used but you must be careful. Too much force and the new sender may leak.
An oil pressure sender is the wrong part. You need an oil pressure switch. The oil pressure switch is right next to the oil filter. You may have to remove the oil filter to get to it. Run the car upon ramps. Go under car and reach up between the engine and the firewall. It takes a 24 mm deep socket, or wrench.
If this is the Accord EX 4 cylinder, it has on a small can-shaped oil cooler (cooled by engine coolant flowing through it) under the oil filter. There is an o-ring seal between the oil cooler and the engine block. This o-ring could leak engine oil.