Mysterious check oil light.

[Shaminii]

Ok, before any Zilvia mobs start bashing, YES I did search. I found similar threads with answers but since they had slightly different cases and not all cars are made equal, I've decide to make a thread.

Here is the story:
I took my car out to a drift event. All was well except a minor overheating problem and right after my last run, my oil light comes on. Please note that I had changed my oil with Mobil1 Full Synthetic 10W-30 before the event. During that run, I did spin out off course and my engine stalled. I can't remember if it was because I didn't put the car in neutral or not. When trying to start it, the car had trouble starting. Of course, right after that run, I freak out once I see the light. I check for any smoke and oil coming out of my car and yet nothing is coming out. I drove the car home and during my trip, I noticed that the light only comes on in a flickering fashion when I'm either in neutral and at a stop. In other words, it only comes on when there isn't much load on the engine. Once the car starts moving, the light goes away. The car seems to run fine and there are no noises or smoke. I check my oil each time before I drive and it's always full and gold. Now, I know I shouldn't be driving the car till I find the problem, but its my daily so finding a quick solution would be great. Also, my idle has been weird too. I've always had idling problems, but now when I come towards a stop, the rpm's would chill at 500rpm for a real long time. I haven't been able to get under the car to check anything since I don't have a jack that is low enough to go under my car. My possible ideas of this mysterious oil light are: blown fuses, loose sensor, bad oil pump, maybe the oil pan got dented. I really hope this is just a minor problem. Help and input is greatly appreciated.

[los_inc]

check the oil pressure switch located nexted to the oil filter
these sensors have the tendency to crap out

-los

[aznpoopy]

you probably blew out the sensor

it tends to sprout a hole in the back and mist oil into your engine bay

[mr_240sx]

maybe you dented the oil pan and starving it for oil?

[Shaminii]

How could you determine if the sensor is crapped out?

[aznpoopy]

the fsm probably has a procedure to check the signal coming off the sensor or whatever

if you don't feel like doing that you could just replace it. it's not an expensive sensor.

another obvious clue is oil all over around it and behind it, if it started spraying oil.

[Z U L8R]

they always leak, replace if you have any oil around the rubber boot when you go to unplug it.

[fliprayzin240sx]

Hopefully its just that, and not a bad oil pump. Also, 10-30W while tracking, you might wanna look for a heavier oil. It could be the oil gets too thinned out once the car gets hot causing the pressure to drop. IIRC, those lights turn on when the pressure around .5 bar.

[Shaminii]

So, I hooked up a mechanical oil pressure gauge a friend let me borrow and my idle at warm temperatures is at 20psi. On a cold start, it was 75psi! When I revved to 3500, it was way around and above 80psi. Now according to the FSM, that is way off but I have pressure. I did however before hooking up the oil pressure gauge, banged out the oil pan flat and clean up some stuff I found in the oil pickup. So what do you guys think? Maybe the air in the oil pressure gauge might have made the oil pressure gauge off idk. Also, the oil light is gone.

[Z U L8R]

if your oil pan was bent...when you had the oil pan off did you check that your oil pickup tube/strainer wasn't damaged/cracked/clogged?

[Shaminii]

Originally Posted by Z U L8R

if your oil pan was bent...when you had the oil pan off did you check that your oil pickup tube/strainer wasn't damaged/cracked/clogged?

The oil pick up looked like a perfect UFO to me. The line seemed fine as far as I could tell. I didn't bother taking off the buffer plate to investigate more. I stuck my finger in the pick-up and found a washer and some weird plastic pieces that I don't know where they came from. But they weren't enough to clog the pick-up.