check oil light

[cheap80Z28]

every so often the check oil light flashes on and off, sometimes it might stay on for maybe 10 seconds....well it the g/f's 93 with about 95 thou. miles....took it to a pont dealer to tell us what the prob was....they never put it on a comp to find any codes like i asked them to do....but told us that they put it on the lift and that they think that the bottom end was going and needed to rebuild or replace the motor....the car has great power, no leaking or burning oil, no noises that I can tell of....

are they just full of beans..want me to spent 3 grand there for a motor????
the rest of the car is great, don,t want to get rid of it...if it needs a motor, what can i throw in there?
can,t be much harder that replacing the 350 in my 80 Z28 can it??
steve

[nathan_w1]

I think this is a common problem with this body style of car, because mine does the same thing even though it has plenty of oil.

[cheap80Z28]

how many miles do u have? have u tried anything? i was thinking of taking it to valvoline and having them run the oil cleaner stuff and then they put fresh in, cost i think 40.
steve

[bluez]

no dont do that my ga does the same thing has for about 40,000 miles on and off. well i work on cars and its just a wire grounding out. no big deal.

[nathan_w1]

Is there a way to disable it?

[bluez]

yeah pull the light out of the dash lol. thats about the only way. unless u can pull the wire going to the oil pan but that might turn the oil pressure light on. but ill try it and let u know what happens

[cheap80Z28]

so you think that it isn't a sensor of any kind, or like the change iol light on the newer grand ams?
steve

[Sativa]

if your oil pressure is really high switch ur oil pressure sending unit out for a new one for 15 bucks. if that stops it then that was ur problem. i doubt ull have to buy a new motor but if you do go for a genII 3.8L. thats what i did.

[tenspeed]

On my '96 Olds 2.4L, I have two oil sensors. One is for low oil pressure and the other is the "Check Oil" light. If the low oil pressure light comes on, you might have trouble.

The check oil light is just a float in the oil pan to tell you when you are a quart and a half low on oil.

My check oil light sensor failed and I changed it when I changed my oil. One bolt holds it in place in the bottom of the oil pan.

It should be the same for the V-6, maybe not.

[graden]

this is a common problem with these cars. lemonade books discribe this problem all the time with these cars. If the engine is a touch low or a touch high with oil, it will trigger the light . the best advice is to deregard the light and check you oil with the dip stick. if your concerned about the oil pressure.. have a test done and/or get a after market oil pressure pod installed if its not in your cluster all ready

[swalt]

In the manual for my 93GT, it specifically mentions the flickering of the light periodically as being normal. Mine does not flicker, but for the past 8 years it takes about 20 seconds for it to go out after the car starts.

[graden]

lol ....the only reason its mentioned as normal is because G.M could not figure out how to fix the problem before the engine went in to mass production for G.A. They knew they were going to axe this engine for the 3.1 any ways so there was no need to adress the problem.

[GT101]

For anyone following this thread, GM had issued an TSB regarding
this issue :


BULLETIN NO.: 53-83-04

DATE: May, 1995

SUBJECT:
Blinking/Flickering of "Check Oil" Tell-Tale and "Check Gages" Tell-Tale with Gauge Cluster

[jamisonfitz]

Mine comes on and off at times as well, it will come on and fade away and maybe come back stong a few seconds later, even though my oil is fine... weird and annoyin.

[93GASE3300]

The GM bulletin says that this is a normal condition which can only be fixed by the IPC being replaced. I would just live with it if i were you. As long as the oil level is good you have nothing to worry about.

[jws1701]

Mine does the same thing. It didn't do it for a while after I changed the oil, but about 500 miles after changing, it started to act up again.

[PontiacGA]

Yeah, I had a similiar issue. If I turned the ignition to acc., off, then started it, the light stayed off. I got tired of it and bought the cheap sensor that goes on your oil pan and it fixed it. I just picky about things like that. :P