I need some advice on this, this is killin' me. I just replaced the oil pressure switch for my 91'. I go to drive it after that and everything is fine, no oil light no nothing. Then after about 10 minutes of driving, the oil pressure light starts blinking as though it were malfunctioning. The odd thing is that it apparently works fine when the car is stopped, I get a solid oil light then, but when I start rolling it will begin to blink. Sometimes when i go around corners it will stay solid as though it were working fine and there was no malfunction.

I went out to look under the car, there is no leak, and the oil level is perfectly fine, its not foamy, so the problem must be in either the electrical connection or in the switch itself.


So what do I do at this point, try to fix the connection or get a new switch in there? The switch was made by BWD, I don't see how it could have been a bad unit (unless it was a defect).


But please let me get your advice on this, I am sure someone has had this happen before.


TY

 

I just went and made sure the connection was good and cleaned it out. I went to turn it on and drove it for 10 minutes, then the oil light came on again. It rythmically blinks when I am driving then it goes solid when I stop. It only comes on when the engine is hot and completely warmed up. It won't come on when its cold or when its warm.


My old pressure sender didn't do this, the car seems to run fine too. What could cause this, a bad sender or bad wiring? Maybe the connector is loose..

I pray the sender is not accurate and that it is indeed a malfunction, for a minute I thought my engine was toast.


Please help. I don't know what to do from this point. Someone please give me a word?

 

my car does the same thing but i have to replace the oil pump. what i did was get the engine hot and took the valve cover off and let it run and watch the light when my light started coming on i could see the oil pump wasnt pumping oil to the head. but when it was cold it would spray everywhere. that way you can tell if its a mechanical malfunction or a light problem

 

you didn't say but did you replace the oil pressure switch cause it was leaking or because the oil light was coming on?
i to put a bwd switch in my car and it didn't change anything so that's why it did the test i described above.

 

I changed it because it was leaking. Aren't you supposed to disable the ignition system when you take the valve cover off?

How long did you drive your car with the light on? If my old switch wasn't working right and my new one is accurate, then i've driven my car (its newly rebuilt) for 1000 miles with little to no oil pressure. My car should have been destroyed by then. Right? When the oil light is fully lit, that means the car has next to zero pressure, a very very bad state to be in. It does that to me while i'm at idle.

My old pressure switch should have been working fine. I don't suspect that it was inaccurate at all since the car was not showing any signs of very low oil pressure. I tested it at 500 miles and it had 185 compression on all 4 cyl. (when cold).



O and btw, oil pumps don't create oil pressure, main bearing clearances do. Its a common misconception to think oil pumps create pressure. Oil pumps only pump volume. However, if your pump is bad you won't get oil flow, so it could very well be the pump. When you replace your pump and still get no pressure then your bearings may be shot. But when you take the pan off make sure your oil screens not clogged, that can cause problems to. And also sludge in the oil filter can cause a big lack of pressure.

 

I would double check to make sure you got the correct one. The switches are grounded by the block. If there was oil in the thread perhaps it's stopping it from getting a good ground, just a thought off the top of my head.

 

I would guess that you might have a chafed wiring somewhere, but a bad ground could also be the cause.

 

I did test it for ground and it was positive (good). The manual showed me how to do it. You check the continuity of it by putting one end of the meter on the switch and the other on the block.

What I did do is return the BWD switch for a Beck Arnley one. I have a good feeling about the Beck Arnley one because it says right on it that its "made in Japan".


I thought it was bad wiring too but it doesn't really add up when I did all the tests the manual prescribed (came back positive).


Wish me luck, gonna fill her up with oil and change the switch, then take it for a spin.

 

I replaced it with the Beck Arnley one, which says on the switch itself that it is MADE IN JAPAN . I made a video update on youtube if you wanna watch it,
It documents a strange noise underneath the engine. I thought it was a rod knock at first cause I discovered it when the oil light was coming on. It only does it when its hot though. It sounds like exhaust valves going out of the header/downpipe on second thought.

Listen for yourself.

[youtube]vb0k2uUUg8A[/youtube]

 

You know what might have happened is that the old switch was actually no good. You put the new one in and it's actually working correctly and you have bad pressure. This could be the oil pump bad or something is stuck and it's preventing good pressure. You could try putting the old switch back in. See if the light goes off again. But in the end you should get an oil pressure gauge to check out actual pressure. That sound could be an exhaust leak. You could try running some sea foam to help find the leak if there is one. You may even want to get another exhaust manifold gasket and flange and just take em back off and see if you see any soot that shows an exhaust leak leaking out from the manifold or the flange gasket. It's very important when tightening the three flange bolts to do several passes with slightly higher torque specs so that they evenly tighten so it doesn't leak. Those crush gaskets are onetime use.

 

I though about that, the old switch may have been bad, however when I you look at the facts it appears it was not.
I just put 2 new switches in, a "BWD" brand and a "Beck Arnley" brand. The BWD one, (the first one I put in because of the leaking switch), triggered the light to come on, but the Beck Arnley one (made in Japan) which I just put in did not. This makes me think the BWD one was giving me a faulty reading. So the old switch must have been working it just had a leak.

I did just get a oil pressure kit but its NPT and the Honda uses BTP (British pipe thread). I don't know if the NPT adapters will work for it.Do you know if NPT (national pipe thread) will work?

I don't smell any exhaust smells so I don't suspect there is a leak. It sounds to me like exhaust valve noise going down the downpipe. Or maybe its loud valve noise, idk. All I know is that you can hear it better when its hot and that its loudest underneath the front of the engine.


Did you listen to the clip? Its at the 2:30 mark.

Think you can do me a favor and check to see if you hear the same sound in your car? Make sure your car is hot though. I have a cat back exhaust though.

 

It doesn't sound that bad. It would be nice if your video wasn't in the dark. lol

Can you make another video and rev the engine. It makes rod knock easier to hear. But that could actually just be valve tap. I had a similar sound before I adjusted the valves on my h22a tbh. I have never seen metal shavings in any engine except the one I blew the head gasket on.

 

I know, it is dark sry. The car runs really good, when I rev it up you can't hear any knocking at all; you can't even hear the knock when you are standing under the hood its only when you get under the engine that you can hear it. I think its an exhaust leak, I did smell fumes. Gonna seafoam it and check where it is coming from. Those metal shavings were from the first 300 miles of the rebuild and came from a cut open oil filter. Understandably there was metal shavings (looked like tiny glitter) in the oil filter because when the rings seated in the cylinders it shaved the hone off. I just threw that fact in there because some people were accusing me of using wrong sized bearings on another forum and they though that was why I was having poor oil pressure (which I wasn't). The bearing clearances are fine though and there is no rod knock. It is a very healthy rebuilt engine.

Thank you for responding to my post. You had an H22 in your Accord, was it hard to swap?

 

It wasn't hard to swap I just ran into some weird issues I needed to figure out.

Check your valve clearances when the engine is completely cold. It could just be valve tap if not exhaust leak.

 

Its been confirmed as an exhaust leak. I used marvel mystery oil in the vac. It smoked like a ****. I was not able to tell if it came from the flex pipe or what but it would suck if that was already leaking cause I just bought this header/downpipe from ebay.

I did however just change the oil pan gasket and did not use new gaskets or apply copper spray on the old one so maybe thats why.

 

Here is where its leaking, its the welds for the flange that goes on the block. Its a downpipe leak, not a gasket leak... It guess its what you get for buying ebay headers.

Here's a video. I didn't get it to smoke much but you can see it.

[youtube]fU_LJv-Zxgk[/youtube]



I think a JB weld would fix it, what do you think?

 

You're not supposed to use that bracket with aftermarket downpipes cause they crack rather easily.

 

Really, then why do weld a place for the bracket to begin with? I thought you needed that bracket.

What then should I do about this, I picked up some exhaust repair at the store. Its not cracked i don't think its just a faulty weld with a hole in it.

I'll inspect and apply the repair paste, I think the bracket is there for a reason so I'm still gonna use it.

 

They just put the bracket onto the pipe to make it appear stock. Normally most pipes just aren't made strong enough to support attaching the pipe bracket to the back of the block because it breaks quite easily on a strong shift. I doubt any type of paste will hold on an exhaust system component. It's all entirely up to you.

 

Okay, I understand what you're meaning now. Thanks. I made a video about the entire incident and subsequent repair. I ask whether this will work or not. Will it? I'm not going to use the bracket again, lol.

[youtube]YOjIaPslYyQ[/youtube]

 

I've never used that stuff nor even seen it. I have used rtv in the exhaust and not only did it melt within a few miles it made my oxygen sensor cause my car to cut off at times. If it's hard enough like jb weld then perhaps it could work, but I would say just get another pipe. Those things are cheap at ebay. You just need the pipe. Just don't use the bracket. I'm curious where your oxygen sensor is.

ps thanks for dissing me in that vid lol

 

The o2 sensor on the less powerful 125 hp lx versions are on the exhaust manifold. Which is made of cast iron and literally weighs a ton. I have the ex style header + downpipe which flows much better than the lx original one. The ebay one I got comes with to o2 sensor holes for each version (lx or ex).

It did get quite hard during driving, like jb weld except more heat resistant. I already installed the pipe with the sealant on it, we're gonna see how it performs today... Some guys on the cb7tuner forum were saying it was not true that aftermarket downpipes break like that, at least if they are quality ones.


I wasn't dissin' you in the vid just looking at it from my point of view.

 

I just got it welded at the local garage shop. The man did a very good and thorough job. I mean, check it out.

[youtube]b-duP8N_kIQ[/youtube]


Let me know what you think.

 

The guy did as good a job as he could do. But enough vibration can crack anything. If it breaks again, time to re-design the mount.