Hi, I have a 1998 Plymouth/Breeze. My question is once my car is warmed up as I am driving when I hit the brakes the oil light comes on but as I am hitting the gas it turns off. Can you explain why does the light come on only when I hit the brakes. I have checked all fluids and had an oil change.
Thanking you in advance for your time and answer.
When the oil light comes on, are there any unusual noises coming from the engine? If not, then the most likely problem is with a defective oil pressure sending unit. This is a switch mounted to the side of the engine. Replacing this switch to see if it solves the problem is probably the cheapest thing to do at this point. If this doesn’t solve the problem, then an accurate oil pressure gauge should be connected to monitor the oil pressure.
Tester
Get your oil pressure checked by mechanical gauge ASAP by mechanic.
Light comes on when you hit brakes because engine slows down and pressure is less at idle vs when gas is applied. Either engine has oil pressure problem or electrical sensor, which the aforementioned test will confirm the great news or really bad news.
I would speculate that your oil is so low that when you hit the brakes, all of the oil flows to the front of the oil pan away from the sump and no oil is being circulated to the engine. Then when you hit the gas, the oil flows to the back of the pan where the sump can pull it up into the engine.
I agree that you need to get this looked at by a mechanic with a remote gage.
You don’t say how many miles the vehicle has on it, but it may turn out to be just old. When an engine’s get worn beyond a certain point it has trouble maintaining oil pressure at idle. The oil washes through the spaces between the bearing surfaces too easily and the pump can’t maintain pressure. It’s sort of like maintaining the pressure in a balloon that has a leak in it. If this turns out to be the case, a heavier base weight oil may be the solution. www.carbibles.com has a great primer on oils that may help you to understand the process.