Walmartdriver

Hello, I'm new to Hondas. My son has a 98 Civic DX with a B16. Recently the oil light came on and stays on. We replaced the sending unit. Still on. Has anyone heard of these losing oil pressure like this before? It isn't knocking. But there was s some top end noise my son says is new. Not too bad though.

JRCivic1

There are many possibilities... oil pan flattened into the oil strainer/pick-up limiting volume (common with lowered vehicles), damaged oil pump, main bearing damage allowing a major volume loss across the crankshaft or possibly an internal oil passage port passage falling out. The last is unlikely, but a long-shot just in case the others don't pan out. Just because it doesn't knock doesn't mean you aren't doing more damage to the engine. Make it a priority to diagnose and fix this issue immediately.

joey1320

Have you tested the actual oil pressure? What are your pressure readings?

As stated above, there could be many things causing the issue, but first make sure you truly have a low pressure issue.

It could be wiring and/or cluster too.

NotARaCist

iTrader: (1)

The low oil light is a dummy light. It's called that for two reasons. First off, the sensor is stupid - it either sees pressure, or it doesn't. It doesn't differentiate between healthy pressure and low pressure. As long as there's more than 1 PSI, the light won't come on. Second off, anyone who drives a Civic with the oil pressure light on is a dummy.

Test the oil pressure to start. Make sure it's within spec. If it isn't, turn the car off immediately and do not drive it until the problem is resolved. If it is, then inspect the wire for damage.

98EGY8

could be the cluster,my friends ghetto hatch oil light stayed on dimly once started, so we put psi gauge on the turbo oil feed line and had good psi on cold start and it never went too low. went behind cluster, green plug barley in, yellow plug not in at all, and ghetto wired boost gauge. removed gauge wiring, cleaned the wiring up and made sure all 4 plugs were plugged in good and no problems since