Oil Light keep comming on.

[pegaxs]

Ok, a quick description. Last few days i have been driving my 2000 3dr echo (has about 101,000km on it) around and the oil light comes on. First time it came on i freaked out, pulled over to the side of the road as soon as i could and cut the ignition. Left the car for 5 mins and checked the oil level. Oil level was correct. No oil under car. no signs up the exhaust of excessive oil consumption. Started up, no light and drive it home (about 5km), no issues.

Yesterday it happened again. I was driving much slower this time. so i pulled over and noticed the light flickered on and off a few times and then stayed off. I turned the car off anyway and checked the oil level again. Still fine. Car is over due for a service, but only by 1000km (not really enough to be clogging up filters and stuff.)

It happened again today. Going up the westgate bridge in the middle of afternoon peak hour traffic.. I thought "screw it, im not getting stuck here, i dont care if the engine craps itself, at least get to the top and i can coast down." Well, it made it to the top, and down the other side, and to the fuel station. Interesting enough though that every time i ran over the "cats eyes" between lanes, the light would flicker off, then after a moment come back on. I got to the servo, turned the car off and started it again straight away. Thinking that if it was out of oil pressure, the light would come back on after restarting straight away. ie: engine hot causing oil pressure loss. well.. the light went out as normal and i started driving again and the light stayed out!

On the way home, the light came on again when i was approaching home. So, it seems that the light only ever comes on after a long trip (30km or more, not to the shops and back.) Against my better judgement, i have driven it up the westgate bridge with the light on and it kept going and didnt change power or get all nasty and noisy like and engine with no oil. I cant tell if the engine is getting to hot as there is no temp gauge, just a temp "light" and that has never come on.

So, my questions are:

a: where the hell is the oil pressure switch... i found a few pressure/temp senders but dont know what one it is to test it or replace it.

b: The dash light, is it a oil temp light as well perhaps ? what is this light trying to tell me exactly, no oil pressure or the oil is getting too hot ? (no owners manual for the car, 2nd hand.)

c: anyone else have this issue ? What did it end up being ?

d: does anyone have a pdf or something of the owners manual. I cant find out where my clock is (does it even have one ?) or if my model come with an imobiliser key. Its auto, air and power steering. Dont even know if its supposed to have central locking, because if it does, it's not working! :)

Cheers! :)

[Guni]

Maybe try servicing the car first ?????

[SuperDave]

Could be a faulty oil level sensor or oil pressure sensor; wiring gone dodgy to either of these two (have you played with any earths lately?); blocked oil filters within the engine itself (this is assuming the NZ is like the ZZ family and has VVT filters in the head).

Oh, and I hope you were checking the level on a fairly cool engine or had it sitting for a while on level ground as the dipstick can read full while oil has been sploshing around the engine.

[Hiro]

Oh, and I hope you were checking the level on a fairly cool engine or had it sitting for a while on level ground as the dipstick can read full while oil has been sploshing around the engine.

If you pull the dipstick out, wipe it clean and then re-insert it, then pull it out and check the level (which is the correct proceedure for checking oil level), then a warm car will read a _lower_ level than a cold car, as the oil has not had a chance to drain back into the sump.

[SuperDave]

^ finishing off my poorly thought out paragraph. I was alluding to the fact without the wiping the dipstick can still read full.

[pegaxs]

15 years as a mechanic, one would hope i could correctly check oil levels by now :)

Didnt know there was an oil level sensor though, I dont think oil level is the issue. It has got plenty... checked hot and cold. Although, i will check that is has a sensor for this, as it could be faulty as well.

Real problem is that i dont know what sensors screwed into the block are the correct ones to check. I think i worked out what one is the VVT valve from the service manual, but for some stupid reason, i cant find any info on the oil pressure switch. Maybe i will just buy one and match it up. It cant be far from the oil filter housing.

My only real major concern was big end bearings. Too worn out, they become over sized and just eat up and leak oil from the lube system. This would cause low pressure, but it wouldnt explain why i can turn the car off and straight back on and it works fine...

Having not owned an echo before, i dont know much about them and what the common problems are. I dont know if the last owner was a good owner or crap owner. It has a "service due at:" sticker on it that says due at 100.K, but how many did it miss before that ?

On a side note, how is this for getting one up on a dealer... When i bought this car i did a lot of reading on this forum and other places. I found this car in the local paper and went to speak to the car yeard about it. When i was there i noticed it had no books... Knowing it has no timing belt to be replaced at 100K i asked had it been changed ? Playing dumb shopper, the sales guy said he didnt know. I said well, its not getting close to 100K and i would need to get it changed. I said if he knocked another $400 off the already negotiated price to cover me getting the 100K service and timing belt done i would take it. He rang the service manager and asked "how much to get a timing belt changed on a car" the service manager didnt even ask what car and just said "bout $500, including parts and labour" He said ok, deal done. Day of pick up, i paid for the car and said to him.. "oh, by the way, these cars have timing chains and dont require them to be changed at 100K."

Guess the jokes on me now... could need big ends! :P hahahah oh :(

[SuperDave]

In that case I guess you might know a thing or two about cars then :P

On the ZZ series the oil level sensor is internal to the sump and the oil pressure comes off of the block near the filter IIRC.

[rob323]

I would say it is most likely a dodgy wire/ connection going to the oil pressure sensor. Echo's are fairly basic, they only have an oil pressure sensor, not oil temp as well.

The oil pressure sensor is on the front of the motor, under the intake manifold and is green coloured plastic from memory. You can always remove it an insert an oil pressure sender if you are concerned about the pressure and your bearing clearances.

Refer attached extract from the work shop manual for further info.

insp.pdf