On the way home from working out of town I got a red light, low oil pressure message and the gauge went down to the red zone. No strange smells or sounds. I put the car in neutral, the engine stalled and I coasted into a rest area beside the highway. I popped the hood and no sign of oil on the engine or inside of the engine bay and no drips under the car and no oil in the antifreeze. While waiting for the flat bed to take her home I added a liter of oil and no leaks under the car. When the engine cooled down the dip stick said a little over full, top circle. I did notice a small amount of dark deposits on the bumper around the tail pipes but I never noticed any blue exhaust. I didn't try to start it again fearing doing more damage. It's a 1997 coupe with 158.000 km. Regular oil changes every mid summer, done in July, and just before I park it for the winter, about every 3000 - 4000km. I'm calling the mechanic tomorrow to see when I can get the car in but I was wondering if one of you folks might have an idea what the problem might be.

 

Personally I would change the oil pressure switch first & check the wiring harness leading to it.

 

+1

You will be very unlucky if it is anything worse.





Graham

 

Can you say a bit more about the engine stalling?

 

Thank you folks for your replies.

I was only doing about 120kph (75mph) when the red light came on. I shifted the car into neutral and was going to turn the engine off but she stalled before I could. No weird noise from the engine or lurch from the car. I thought it stalled because I put it in neutral at that speed. No codes from the code reader and no low oil pressure message on dash when I turned the key to the on position, just the oil pressure gauge moved up slightly to the red zone. The oil looked brown on the dipstick but it didn't look or smell burnt and the car hasn't been using any extra oil. I'm going to have another look after a few coffees to wake up and will report my findings.

 

Esslinger?

 

+2

 

Probably but he's always booked months in advance otherwise Pat Blondin at Rivers Edge. He's been working on my vehicles for 15+ years. I think I'm going to talk to Pat and order an oil pressure switch from SNG and go from there.

 

Thats always the problem with them, but that what happens when you are good.

l wonder if its a fairly generic switch that Lordco could get you (they have surprised me in the past), or if you could 'trip' the switch, just to check i can imagine this is not something you want playing on you mind. Best of luck with it

 

Thanks. Sounds like you know P.G. Ya, I'm not too mechanically inclined so when there's something serious it goes to the mechanic.

 

Yes, i have a summer place up here.

How did you get on?

 

Right on. I ordered the part from Lordco and it should be here tomorrow morning. I read up on how to replace the switch and it looks fairly simple so I'm going to give it a go.

 

I never have had a low oil pressure issue but I did have to replace the oil pan gasket. With the pan removed I noticed a lot of prior engine work debri plogging up the oil pan intake. On my car the plastic from the failing chain tensioners made its way to the sump and plogged up the intake. If the sensor is your problem OK but perhaps oil flow is being blocked inside the engine. If it was getting out via the valves or rings you would certainly see blue exhaust. Another possibility could be a blocked breather or EGR system.

 

FWIW: This is my "go to" for oil pressure verification regardless of vehicle. It has a 15ft hose and has served me well for nearly 50 years.

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Thanks for your help and suggestions. It's people like you that make this a great forum. I'm going to get a new floor jack and jack stands when I pick up the switch since I haven't been under a car in 20+ years. I'm hoping the switch is not to difficult to find and if anyone has done this any instructions or tips would be greatly appreciated.

 

reference the illustration posted above by Graham, aka “GGG”.

If you can find the oil filter, then you’ll see the low oil pressure switch immediately adjacent to it.

Z

 

Well that was an easy job, at least it would have been if the parts store would have ordered the right part. The switch was easy to locate, the connector was easy to remove and the switch itself was easy to remove since the plastic attached to it was broken off making it easy to attach a wrench to the 6 sided "nut" part. The new, right?, part will be here Friday and I'll install next weekend.

 

Issue resolved. The replacement oil pressure switch arrived yesterday and I replaced the old one this morning. Easy job, it took longer to jack up the car and put the jack stands under the car than replacing the switch. A 7/8 deep socket slips over the whole switch assembly and makes the job easy. I let the car run for 15 minutes, no oil drips and the gauge shot up to the middle of the dial like it should. I took the car for a little run around town and it ran great. A big thank you to the good folks here who pointed me in the right direction. Now, on to installing the new Mina air intake tube that also arrived last week.

 

Thanks for posting the successful outcome. I've added "RESOLVED" to your thread title.

Graham

 

Well done....

You will enjoy that Mina air intake kit. No more cracked and degrading OEM air intake tubes once you install the Mina kit....