Help oil light!

I was driving down town and my oil light was flickering at a stop light. Now it obly comes on at idle. When I was turning the steering wheel at a stop the light would flicker . I run 5w30 and the oil is super clean and at proper level

 

Oil light or maintenance light? If oil is at proper level and it is the oil light. Sounds like pump malfunction or failure. Better shut it off and get a pressure reading quick just incase

 

Oil light. I turned it off ran into store got back in it now I'm idling in a Starbucks drive through and it hasn't came on once. Was it just a little fart in the system ?

 

And they are out of breakfast sandwiches

 

Man that would freak me out. I'd get an oil pressure gauge on it asap just to be sure.

 

I hr an hour drive home. Fuck it.

 

Still good and no light

 

Could be the sending unit going bad. Definitely get a gauge on it and confirm pressure at idle on a hot engine.
When you cranked the wheel, the power steering pump loaded the engine and dropped the idle 50rpm or so.

That light is designed to come on at somewhere between 3 and 7psi... and without testing there is no way to know exactly where in that range. When I added a gauge to my motorcycle, I still wanted to retain the light, so I built an adapter. I went through 4 or 5 sending units, all the same part number, until I found one that triggered above 5psi.

 

im pretty positive i run wix and never fram

 

YIKES!

 

put about 200 miles on it yesterday. never came back on.

 

Could be a system glitch...... I had the same thing on my 08 R8. Low oil pressure light came on, shut it down checked the levels (they were fine) started it back up and never seen it since. Scared the shit out of me though!

 

^ yup thats what im thinking.

 

Where do you connect an oil pressure gauge on the 3.4 v6 engine? Not having a problem, but would be good to know.

 

For troubleshooting, I'd replace the factory sending unit with the gauge's sending unit.
For a permanent installation, you can use a brass "T" to make a manifold to mount both of the sending units, then plumb that to the pressure port.
Just make sure that the brass "T" is grounded.

Here's how I did the one on my bike. The large sending unit is for the gauge, the small one with the rubber cap is for the idiot light. I soldered a brass screw to the "T" and two nuts and lockwashers secure the ground wire (not yet connected in this picture)
The braided stainless hose on the left connects the sending units to the pressure port. I've seen guys thread the "T" directly into the case, but I don't trust that much weight hanging on a 1/8" brass pipe nipple.

The zip tie around the sending unit is only there to secure the bracket and sending unit while I snugged the hose clamps.

 

Thanks Rich. Would have never thought about the grounding of the brass T.

 

Turned out that I was grounding just fine through the stainless hose and fittings, but I ran the wire to be sure.