Flickering Oil Pressure Light

[BMW BMXER]

So I will be driving around and everyonce and awhile my oil pressure light flickers then goes off again.

Most of the time its under constant load not idle.

I feel no ill effects in the car and get no check light.

[Jordan]

The stock oil pressure switch is tripped when oil pressure drops below 7psi.

If the light is turning on when not at idle you either have a faulty switch, or you have serious oil pump failure.

I would stop driving the car and replace the switch immediately. If the light still comes on your need to hook up a mechanical oil pressure gauge and see what it really is.

The rule is 10psi per 1,000rpm for a m20.

[BMW BMXER]

Thanks Jordan, I will get on changing the switch.

If I need to continue past that I'll post.

[jackyl]

Hi, my oil light, also flickered yesterday.
But only when i´m idle. If i acelerate a little bit, the light goes off.
What could it be?

Thanks

[BMW BMXER]

Hi, my oil light, also flickered yesterday.
But only when i´m idle. If i acelerate a little bit, the light goes off.
What could it be?

Thanks

On start up that is normal.

[jackyl]

On start up that is normal.

It was with the car hot :(
Also, the temperature was a little pass the middle(strange, since the water pump was new, and a big revision was done on the car).

Ah, the car doesn´t have a thermostat, so it´s even stranger.
Maybe the needle was crazy... (hope so...)

[BMW BMXER]

Doesn't really matter temeperature of the car, when you start the oil light can stay on for a bit but if you press the gas and it goes away you are good.

[jackyl]

Doesn't really matter temeperature of the car, when you start the oil light can stay on for a bit but if you press the gas and it goes away you are good.

I may expressed myself wrong

With the car temperature normal, the oil light flickered, but when i hit the gas pedal, the light went off, but when the RPM come to idle, the light went on again, but the light is not on strong... it´s weak, sometimes strong,goes off, goes on weak... this is parts of seconds.

[Nick325is]

The only time my oil pressure light has flickered is when I was running 10w30 during the winter and it was starting to warm up outside. This only occured at idle and has never happened since.

Nick

[89isluv]

I may expressed myself wrong

With the car temperature normal, the oil light flickered, but when i hit the gas pedal, the light went off, but when the RPM come to idle, the light went on again, but the light is not on strong... it´s weak, sometimes strong,goes off, goes on weak... this is parts of seconds.

This sounds like an oil pump failure to me. I just went through the same thing with my 89is and ended up catching it too late. Ended up destroying the entire engine. Hope this is not the case, but regardless you need to have this checked immediately. Good luck....

[nando]

Doesn't really matter temeperature of the car, when you start the oil light can stay on for a bit but if you press the gas and it goes away you are good.

my oil pressure light goes away by the time the engine turns over twice, before it even starts. :D

I would be careful driving a car with a light coming on though. I knew a guy who insisted his oil pump wasn't failing (giving us a ride from the airport), even though the oil was completely topped off (he overfilled it to be sure, dumbass), the light was flickering on/off and the engine was way overheating/losing most of it's power. We had to pull over because it got so bad, the poor motor couldn't move the car anymore. I have no idea how, but after he let it cool down we pulled away (slowly) and made it another 10 miles home. He also told me the oil light would usually stay on for 5 minutes every time he started it up. :-? that thing was a deathtrap..