??? Re-phrase that, I do not understand what you are saying there. Also, please clear up which oil light you are seeing, red or yellow, and the conditions under which you are seeing it. If it is red and on all the time, do not run the engine, shut it down.
Open the hood and pull out the dipstick to check the oil level. Is it up to the full mark. If you don’t know how to do this, see if the procedure is shown in your owners manual or get someone to show you how to do it. You need to know how to do this if you plan on driving a car. Putting in gas, checking the oil level and checking the tire pressures are three things that every drive should know before even starting their car for the first time.
I need these answers before I can advise you any further. Check the oil level before you do anything else and let us know if it is full.
well it will sometimes flicker and then stop, it will mostly flicker when i’ve warmed the vehicle up, maybe 10 minutes sometimes 30+ and will only flicker when i’m at a complete stop at a red light. I will check the oil and run it and see what happens when I drive it for work tomorrow , it hasn’t done it recently which is weird, cause it will do it some of the time.
He told me he thought the oil pressure light was a leak, i had some stuff leak out at the front of my car at the bottom so we got Lucas Engine Oil to mix in with the synthetic oil I got at the time of my oil change. I didn’t know until now, coming onto this site that it is a oil pressure light.
I know how to check my oil so I’ll do that, add some new oil in it if needed and drive it for a few days to see if it flickers like it will sometimes do and get back to you.
I have little oil in it but I don’t get paid until 2 weeks so I cant’ even get an oil change, maybe ask my boyfriend for some money for oil and pay him back so it can run on oil and not hurt my engine.
I hate that you are between a rock and a hard place but if that engine doesn’t have the proper amount of oil in it, it is going to cost a LOT more than an oil change in two weeks. Even the cheapest oil you can find is better than what you have now.
I don’t think you understand that you’re damaging your engine by running it with low oil. Continuing to run errands is just making that worse. The right oil level is critical to the health of your engine.
You are not getting what you are being told. Low on oil, light “just flickers”, etc means your engine will die a catastrophic death sooner rather than later. Personally, I think it’s on its last legs now the way this tale is developing.
Did you not even read what I said about it only taking 3 to 5 PSI of oil pressure to turn off the light but that same 3 to 5 is not enough to protect the engine? At some point it will spin a bearing and/or throw a rod and the engine becomes scrap metal.
If its really low on oil and has been for days/weeks,bearing damage will cause oil pressure to drop once the vehicle comes to a stop and during warm idle because there is likely scoring on the bearings and journals,which increases the clearances between those components.Its this additional space between those parts that makes the oil pressure drop and the light come on or flicker.If the light is flickering because pressure is on the ragid end of being too low,I would do an oil change now vs waiting even 1 more day.My Trailblazer has a light that comes on when its time for an oil change and also a warning light that comes on if pressure gets close to or exceeds the minimum required pressure and if my oil gets too dirty,it will cause that light to come on until an oil change is done.If your boyfriend wont give (not loan) you the $20 needed to buy a filter,5 quarts of oil and do the oil change for you,get a new boyfriend because he’s not a man.Walmart sells Supertech fully synthetic oil for $14 for a 5 quart jug & its really good oil.A filter will only be a few bucks more so less than $20 in total.Im gonna assume the flickering light is indeed being caused by an oil pressure issue,
but just as a verification,locate & check the wiring harness thats plugged into the oil pressure sender or warning light sensor just to make sure there is not a loose,corroded or chafed harness wire possibly causing the flickering light vs it being due to an actual pressure problem.Good luck
Going to a heavier weight oil could possibly keep the oil light from coming on but that does not address the problem and it also comes with its own risk.
If one starts using say 20/50 motor oil and the crank journals and bearings are badly worn it’s possible that the cold thick oil could shift a bearing shell upon startup (spin) from one side to the other and that will be the end of that motor before you get out of the driveway.
I feel deeply for your situation but… (always a but)…the only way to know what is going on inside that engine is to run a manual oil pressure test OR simply replace the oil pressure switch as a test mule. It would probably be much cheaper just to replace the switch and see what happens then rather than wrestle or pay someone to check the oil pressure. Switches are roughly 10 to 20 bucks depending
If the switch is replaced and the oil light still flickers on then the engine is worn and some or even most of this could be due to not keeping the oil level at the FULL mark. I also suspect the previous owner had a hand in this and could be the reason they chose to unload the car.
You don’t know how tight money is for her boyfriend. He might be as tight financially as the OP is. And he may not have either the mechanical aptitude or the correct equipment and tools to do the oil change. They may also live in an apartment complex where they’re not allowed to work on their cars. None of these factors you know, and frankly none of them have anything to do with whether he’s a “man” or not
so I got my oil change literally the day you guys told me to instead of adding oil to it, i’m sure its been more than 3 weeks its had no oil in it. My boyfriend makes more money than me as a delivery driver, he even wanted to pay for what I need done on the car which is great and I can pay him back and I will still have a car intact. the oil light still flickers so I’m taking it to firestone today to get the switch replaced since you said its only 20 bucks. and just to see what else could be the issue, since quickenuff suggested, ill also see if they can check the wiring harness to see if that may or may not also be causing the problem. Yeah I have a bad feeling about this. On a separate note, I Haven’t gotten my stimulus and unemployment payments, once I do I may just be getting a new car if things the mechanic tell me go down south.
Also yeah the guy didn’t speak much english when I purchased it and he even sold it to me for a very low price 1,100… go figure ugh
Three minutes with no oil is an eternity; much less 3 weeks. Surely you are not still operating the car in this condition?
I said the switch is 10 to 20 bucks. That does not include any labor charge for changing it out. That should not be much but I’m inclined to think this is all an exercise in futility.
Is this flickering occur only after the engine is warmed up and at idle? If so, it is just plane worn out. More specifically the main and rod bearing are worn out. The cost to repair will probably be well above the value of the vehicle.
If this is the case, you can try the thicker oil, a 15w40 diesel oil or 20w50 but that usually does not help in my experience. You don’t have to worry about the heavier oil grabbing a bearing and spinning when cold unless its winter in Alaska or Minnesota. But you could spin a bearing at any time and at any temperature. You will know it because it will sound like someone is hitting the engine with a hammer.
But since this is not going to fix itself and for all practical purposes, there is no benefit or savings to be had by not driving it, I say keep driving it until you can’t anymore. Watch the oil level like a hawk. that is check it every time you get gas or even every time you start it. Keep extra oil with you and keep it topped off.
Don’t waste money on special oils, get the cheapest you can find. For your case there is no benefit in premium or synthetic oils, just use the basic 10w30 would be my choice here. You could still get quite a few miles out of this before it gives up completely. Then junk it. Worse case. it will quit at the most inconvenient time it can find. They always do. Just start every trip expecting that this will be the cars last one and it may not go all the way. In other other words, always have a Plan B for every trip.