TheWalrus

just bought the car, it was sitting for like a year before i drove it 75 miles home. halfway through the trip the light started flickering at idle only, if i held it at 1500 rpm or higher it went off. i hooked up a cheap mechanical gauge and it read 80 psi on a cold start, 90 psi at 3000 rpm...helms says it should be 10/50. its a parts car and i had to hurry and pull the motor, so i couldnt test it any further. can the light turn on from pressure being too high??? how could it get that high??? the helms doesnt say anything about the pump relief valve, anyone know where it is and how to check it? i ruled out the pressure switch, and the crank bearings arent noisy but theres a little metal on the baffle.....i have another pump lying around, i just want to make sure thats the problem before i put it back in a car. think my oil psi gauge is just reading high?? thanks

Rob97'SH

Well from exper. with this problem double check you have enough oil and make sure you check the level when the car is as level as possible. Min. oil pressure is 10 psi at idle and min. 50 psi at like 3k (warmed up) normal should be around 30/80. If I were you I would change the oil and filter to start. Now the oil light is a dummy light, cause if it comes on its normally over. If after you have checked the simple stuff. It will be your pump as it was for me and well that didn't turn out good for me. Hope this helps.

PirateMcFred

In my experience 90 psi cold is not that high with Hondas. IIRC the oil pressure has to be above 60 psi just to operate VTEC depending on the market. I would be less worried about high pressure and more about low pressure. When you had it running what was the idle pressure? Was it really below 10psi?

TheWalrus

vtec needs 60 psi to work, but thats at 5000 rpm. 80 at idle confused me at first but yeah im starting to think its normal when cold...the car had been sitting and the old oil couldnt have helped either

i had the pressure gauge hooked up for under a minute after starting it cold. i didnt want to warm up the motor and risk damage, this is my parts car and i need the engine. today i swapped the oil pump and took apart the old one...didnt see any damage to the gear but im hoping that is the problem. i changed the rod bearings also and looked at the mains with a mirror to make sure none were spun.

other than the pump, bearing or maybe a clogged oil passage, nothing else can cause low pressure right?? thanks for the helps

PirateMcFred

It also matters where you tap into the oil system to read the pressure. If you swap out the OE oil pressure dummy sensor then you should have high pressure there. Low oil pressure is usually a sign of bad/real loose bearings at low RPM assumng the pump is in spec.

Parts 11/12 and 13 are the pressure bypass spring:

TheWalrus

nice, didnt think to look on slhonda. i tried to take the spring apart last night but i cant find my big allen wrench to get #13 off. ill prob just air hammer it. i hope i find the problem so i can get on with this thing. i hooked up the gauge at the stock sensor. i guess youd have high pressure cuz its right downstream from the pump? im almost positive my bearings are ok...before i bought the car i used a stethoscope all over the engine. it was quieter than any of my other H23s. and this whole problem only started after driving 30 miles...i had it idling for 20 min before i bought it and the light stayed off

thanks for the help pirate, ill post up in a few weeks...hopefully with good news

LobeSex

also if u put on a oil pressure sensor in the stock place for it and didnt hook up the wire that was connected to it and it just dangling there if it hits and metal if flickers on and off just a suggestion i have the same problem just havent moved the stock wire

f22a1honda

IIIIm also having the same prob with a f22a6 motor, 80 psi at warm up, at 3000rpm it hits 90 psi and it drops back down as if my pressure relief valve opens up, i changed my oil pressure switch and the oring gasket between the block and the oil cooler and i still have a leak at my oil pan, im guessing the high oil pressure messed up all of these gaskets, i literally just changed my oil and filter, and i aslo tried another new filter to rule out a bad filter problem. its driving me up a wall trying to find oil psi ratings for my motor at operating ranges. the motor only has 105 thousand miles on it and by honda standards its a baby, and its always been taken care of!! i was thinking about taking my oil pressure relief valve to see if its cloged up but watching my gauge carefully and seeing a sudden drop from 90 psi back down to 80 at 300 rpm leads me to belive its working but i have no other clue as to what else it could bee???