Well guys, got stranded for the second time today by my civic. Here's what happend.

Driving to work this morning about 7 am I get about 5 miles from work and see my oil light starting to flicker, so I quickly pull into the nearest parking lot just before it stay on full red. I think oh ****, what the hell? I just changed my oil 4 days ago and put on the right filter, used the correct amount of oil and all. Started it up and checked for leaks. No leaks.

I start the car up a second time and the same thing happens, flickers, no light, flickers, solid light. I check my oil level. About a half quart low, but still on the dipstick within the range it needs to be. I go buy a quart of oil and put it in. Start it agian. Same deal with the light.

Just got home from work after having it towed home. Any ideas where to even start? Im clueless....

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Ricey McRicerton &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Well guys, got stranded for the second time today by my civic. Here's what happend.

Driving to work this morning about 7 am I get about 5 miles from work and see my oil light starting to flicker, so I quickly pull into the nearest parking lot just before it stay on full red. I think oh ****, what the hell? I just changed my oil 4 days ago and put on the right filter, used the correct amount of oil and all. Started it up and checked for leaks. No leaks.

I start the car up a second time and the same thing happens, flickers, no light, flickers, solid light. I check my oil level. About a half quart low, but still on the dipstick within the range it needs to be. I go buy a quart of oil and put it in. Start it agian. Same deal with the light.

Just got home from work after having it towed home. Any ideas where to even start? Im clueless....</TD></TR></TABLE>

Being that your oil light is basicly just a warning that oil pressure is too low, changing your oil pump would be the ONLY place to begin.

 

Ok, I am a complete noob here, but you could possibly be burning oil. I dont know what to do in that situation, but just throwing it out as a possibility, maybe you'd know

 

A half quart in less than a week is a bit much IMHO to be burning. Last week I got 40 mpg in this POS and this week it doesn't run right .

I agree with the oil pump idea and thank you for the suggestion. Guess I'm just a bit burnt out from work and then having this dumped in my lap when all of my family is out of town.

 

haha ya its probably the pump, i told you im a noob and ive seen that problem before, but yeah its probably pump

 

check your oil pressure switch for loose connection, swap out the sensor, hook up an oil pressure gauge... just some suggestion. before you dive into changing the oil pump.

 

Before you blame the pump (if you found in fact that you have a low oil pressure), Check your oil pick-up screen and see if it is restricted.

 

HOLY ****!! Ricey McRicerton asking for help on H-T? J/K I would go with the oil pump also.

 

And maybe, just maybe you can try exchanging the filter again...

I hope you use OEM!!!

Because, if it never happened to you before and you said you changed oil and filter 4 days ago, I bet it is something from that change...

I would try filter first and then go upwards to more expensive stuff...

 

Yeah I would think that its possibly a filter problem. Just bought the filter from Honda not 3 weeks ago....if that's the problem Honda will be recieving a bill for my new motor.

EDIT: Has anyone had any of these problems where the light seemed to flicker, not just stay on?

 

I have not had those kind of problems but if your light flickers it seems to me like oil filter is having some bad flow rather than the oil pump is bad...

Cos if I am right, if the oil pump goes bad, the light stays all the time cos the the pump cannot build the pressure... I think there is very low possibility that pump is working good in one moment and in another it fails to work... kinda weird...

If I were you, I would try with the filter and see if it helps... cos what if you buy a new pump and go through all the hassle of exchanging it and it turns out it was the filter all the time...

First go with cheap and easy-to-replace stuff... if that doesn't help, go further...

you have nothing to loose...

Just don't go driving around like that...

 

Good call man. Thanks a bunch. Guess I need to run down and see if Napa or somewhere close has one in stock.

 

pull the pan and inspect the pickup too. could have a blockage, also look for dents in the pan.

oil pump is not the ONLY thing that can cause this. i would say the filter first.

 

Thanks Kamin. The pan is sligtly dented, but has been that way for close to 6 months now. Nothing really noticeable at all if you aernt looking for it (sligtly pushed up on a speed bump). I just pulled the car into the driveway (had to leave it on the street when I got it off the towtruck) and now the light is staying on (had to get it started for about 2 seconds to get it up the incline at the base of my driveway).

I'm going to work on this tomorrow. I just don't have the energy right now.

 

when i did my b16 back in 01 i had a "slight" dent in my pan that i didnt think anything of. it caused such a pressure problem my vtec didnt work till i finally pounded it out.

you could have hit another bump and moved it enough and not even notice.

but i would focus on the filter first.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Kamin &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">pull the pan and inspect the pickup too. could have a blockage, also look for dents in the pan.

oil pump is not the ONLY thing that can cause this. i would say the filter first.</TD></TR></TABLE>

I should have stated I'm an **** bastard when it comes to moving parts of my motor. I agree that there could be a few other places to look for what could be causing the flickering/steady light. If it was me, id probably replace the pump no matter what, its not like they're that expensive. I'm always willing to pay for piece of mind.

 

I think I will be replacing the filter, pushing the pan back into place, and seeing about the pickup filter as well. Hopefully this will fix it. Thanks for the help ladies/gentelmen (yeah right like we have any ladies on HT)

 

think your oil pressure sensor is faulty?

any oil above your filter.. seems like it could be loose and losing a bit of oil.

 

I doubt it. I resealed it with teflon tape almost a year ago when I slapped my turbo kit on (have the fitting Td off for my oil feed and pressure sensor).

 

Well I pulled the oil filter today and found the problem right away. Where the block it Td off to feed both my oil pressure sensor and my feed line, the sensor is broken in half. Guess that explains why it doesn't work. Just went and picked one up. The part was only 10.00 dollars, but the tow cost me 5 times that : /

 

Great... thank god it was something as simple as that