that's what my automotive teacher told me to get for my da teg cause my oil light on the dash comes on now and he said if we put the part on and the light still stays on we're going to have to take the WHOLE engine out and rebuild it. is that really necessary and will the switch solve the problem? if not what could be wrong with it so i don't have to take out my whole engine which i think that's b/s

 

If I remember correctly, that light means you oil pressure is dropping below a designated level. Mine was going off intermittently. I think what you're teacher was trying to say is excessive driving with that light on, or maybe if the oil pressure sending unit doesn't fix it, you may have more work on your hands. I'm not that good at troubleshooting, but if I remember correctly it was less than $20 to swap mine out and it isn't that difficult. Get a hayne's, better yet a helm's, and go at it!

From there, you can continue diagnosing the problem. Just remember to start with the cheap stuff.

 

yeah the part cost me $4.25 and i got oil in my car with NO leaks but the light is on so it might be the sensor acting up or something. i'll see tomorrow when i work on it and let you know

 

I would change it out just to be safe. It doesn't matter how much oil you have if there's not enough pressure to put it where it's supposed to be.

 

Just hook up a autometer oil pressure gauge and see if there oil pressure after you change your oil sending unit and the oil light is still on.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by BOOSTED RIVIL &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Just hook up a autometer oil pressure gauge and see if there oil pressure after you change your oil sending unit and the oil light is still on.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Exactly right, you test the oil pressure with a gauge, surprized your shop teacher would jump to conclusions and scare you like that.

For example, my oil light was coming on, just about every time I was running the engine. So I went and bought an oil pressure gauge and my pressure is sweet.

Turns out, that the oil pressure light is not only controlled by the sending unit, but is also controlled by the Integrated Control Unit, and when this ICU fails, it will give a false light for no reason. Install a gauge and find out exactly where your pressure is.

As for my car, the B18A specs are: min of 10 lbs at idle and min of 50 lbs at 3K
But my gauge reads 18 lbs at idle and 75 lbs at 3K, thats some sweet oil pressure for an engine with 290K miles on it, and I'm glad I don't have your shop teacher. There is no reason to scare someone like that.

 

thanks for the help. hopefully this will solve the problem and i'll try and get me a gauge by this weekend