kaleighcam

I have an '01 with 70k miles that has an issue I hope someone can solve. When it is a very hot day, the oil warning light will come on, flicker really, no more than two seconds, and usually at a stop light. the first few times it happened i immediately pulled over and checked the oil level, which was fine. Under the load of stop and go driving it is much more frequent. The oil pressure indicator seems normal, the water temperature is one 'notch' above the 180' mark. What gives?

keith

logray

Please, kindly describe "normal" for us.

How many bars do you see on:

cold startup
warm idle
cruising warmed up in 5th gear at ~3000rpm

kaleighcam

i'll have to get back to you on those pressure indicators, but I remember my independent telling me they were correct when i asked him about the light. he is almost exclusively an air cooled guy so wasn't too interested in the problem.....

Macster

What gives? The oil pressure light is flashing.

Does the engine appear to react at all when the light flashes? Do you hear any clattering, clicking, ticking, knocking noises? They'll be brief most likely.

If the engine doesn't react if you hear no noises, this might be do to a going bad sensor/sender or even a wiring/connector problem anywhere in that circuit, or it might be due to failing oil sump baffles that let in aerated oil. There are other possible causes some not so serious some serious.

The only way to be sure is to take the car to an expert who can verify the oil pressure is within acceptable values and if not advise you on how to proceed.

I assume the coolant level is good and the system is not losing pressure? If so it can lead to steam pockets forming in the engine's cooling passages and localized overheating which can really heat the the oil. The oil always come in contact with the hottest areas of the engine.

I have to ask: How 'fresh' is the oil? Are you running some good/proper oil in the engine? Right type (synthetic); Right viscosity say 0W-40, 5w-40 or even 5w-50 oil?

Depending upon what is or is not found out, you might consider if you are not already running it try running Mobil 1 5w-50 oil. This oil provides a bit more viscosity at elevated temps. The engine might have experienced a bit of wear and the light flickering is too low an oil pressure at idle due to losses from bearing wear, clearances. A heavier weight oil can help some. It won't add metal to the bearings but it can resist flowing out of the bearing areas better and sustain pressure better at idle.

Sincerely,

Macster.

kaleighcam

macster:

you the man! Plenty to look at. the engine does not make any noise during the "flashes", in fact it runs very well. the car has such a checkered past, with virtually no maintenance to speak of, certainly none by a porsche mechanic, that it could be any or all of your suggestions. I'll start this weekend with the tasks within my capabilities.

thanks again

Dharn55

The oil pressure sender is located on the passenger side of the engine at the top front of the cam cover. This might be faulty. There is a similar threaded hole on the driver's side of thee engine, top of the cam cover toward the rear of the engine (the heads are basically a mirror image of each other). You can uses this hole to put in a pressure gauge that will give you a read out of pressure independent of the gauge on the dash, etc. You will have to source the gauge, etc. to do this but this was once suggested to me by Jake Raby when I was having weird oil pressure readings.

kaleighcam

thanks doug!