Oil light

[elspectro29]

Well, the dreaded oil pressure light came on yesterday. The oil level was full, and the light came on while the car was idling after my 15-minute commute to work. Tonight it came on again when I had just warmed the car up and taking off. Both times I turned off the engine as soon as I could, and the oil lught didn't come on again. Since the oil level is fine, would this be the oil pump? Does the H22 have an oil pressure sensor that could go bad, or could it be something else?

[spiffyguido]

Could be the sensor or the pump. Either way I'd be concerned. There's any number of things that could be wrong to cause this. The oil pump itself is a pretty solid unit, so I wouldn't start there. Check your filter for clogs, and even consider dropping the pan off the bottom of the engine to check and see if the oil pickup is clear. Before anything else though, check the sensor. The sensor light may just be shorting.

[elspectro29]

It turns out the wiring to the sensor was loose. I had it rewired and it hasn't come on since.

[spiffyguido]

A great indication of why it's always a great idea to check the easy things first. Sometimes the simplest problem can seem like something catastrophic. Glad you got it fixed.

[elspectro29]

Problem came back again tonight. Leaving work, the car sputtered a bit when it started and the CEL came on (without the OBD2 toggle switch on this time, so apparently that's less useful than I had though.) I turned the car off and back on again and it was fine. I drove to my parents' house for dinner and it was still fine. When I started the car to come home, it was still fine until the oil light came back on. I turned the car off and on again once more. My house is only a few blocks away so I just drove slowly and the oil light once again came on. Since I was nearly home, I just slowed down even more and pulled into my driveway as normal. Now here's the interesting part: just as I turned my headlights off, the oil light stopped flashing. I didn't see any fluid spots anywwhere. The CEL didn't come back on at anytime, so that may have been just some pickup error, but still I wonder if this is all related.

[spiffyguido]

The bit about the light going off when you turned off your headlights is really odd to me. Possible short or connection there?

[elspectro29]

Yeah, it absolutely threw me for a loop. Today the car ran fine, though I forgot to turn off the fan when I got to work. This manifested itself with a rather loud hissing/fluttering sound from the passenger's side of the engine bay. I didn't know what was going on at first, but when I did I felt relieved and quite stupid at the same time. If only all vehicle problems could be solved that easily.