oil light on and off...even after oil change

[mattmmille]

Hi all,
Looking for help. My oil light comes on with a *ding*, after the car warms up, every time I start to slow down or come to a stop. It will go off after a few seconds and then come on again and again as long as I am idling. Once I accelerate, it stops until I begin slowing down for the next stop. I had the oil changed...Jiffy Lube guy saw no leaks, nothing unusual. Oil is fresh and full. No overheating or other symptoms. I have had a few sensors/sending units go bad and replaced. $20 parts and $150 to $200 total each time with labor. Would rather not pay that much again if this is something simple! Any suggestions? Thanks!!!

[Hooligan]

Welcome mattmmille, to the Forum.
To make it helpful for us to attempt to answer your question we need you to give us some information.
1. What year and type, NA or Turbo, 2. How many miles and 3. Your Location, please fill out your info, Thanks

[mattmmille]

Sorry...I have a 2004 PT (not turbo). I think they call it a "Touring model" or something like that...has a chrome gas cap cover. I bought it from CarMax with 12,000 miles on it and it now has just over 60,000 miles on it. I'm in Cary, North Carolina. In the past, I have had problems with the AC, a fan relay, a fuel pump relay and some other sending unit (can't remember which one right off hand). Seems to always be something.

[BLUEH20]

The most important and missing piece of information is the weight or viscosisty and the base. If you are using a 0W30 fully synthetic, you may not have a real problem. Carolina in the summer. What is ambient temperature when the ding ding occurs--is it always with engine going in to a low rpm with load such a slowing using engine drag or when you come out the hole slow and lazy. Also what oil filter are you using? yep, they do perform differently and can cause problems

[ucantcme]

We have a Chrysler Town and Country at work and I was driving it one day, and the oil light periodically came on while comming to a stop/accelerating at a light and as I was coming to a stop the engine died. I find out about a week later that the van needs a new engine, and when they did an oil change they found metal shavings inside the oil pan.

Don't let this happen to you!!

[CREWZIN]

Welcome to the forum,

Well, you can't get better advice than from BLUEH20 (us Navy guys gotta stick together) but one bad thing I read in your post is that you use Jiffy Lube.

The Lord only knows what kind of oil they threw in your PT or what kind of oil filter. I saw a report once on fast oil change places where they used an old (used) oil filter on someone else's brand new car.

I'd go to a reputable place (ask friends and neighbors for advise) and have the oil and filter changed again just to rule out anything that JL did.

In case it turns out to be the sending unit. Here's where it is.

[Ironman]

Yeah, it's probably the sending unit, I had the same thing happen to me, pull the code, all you need to do is turn the key to run and then to off five times within 30 seconds or something like that. and the odometer will flash a "p" value. I believe that the list of what these codes mean is somewhere on the forum. I had the same thing happen to me, and it turned out to be the sending unit, I knew it wasn't a bad engine or anything because I trust nobody to do my oil but me, so I get to see what the oil looks like, this is actually a good thing because it keeps you in touch with how your car is performing and lets you see what kinds of driving are harder on it.

[lakersfan1]

Oil pressure sending unit or oil pump. As a temporary fix you can try running some 5w40 weight oil so the oil is thicker when hot. Thicker viscosity will naturally boost oil pressure a tad, but you will give up a little flow.

[THS_Cruiser03]

Don't forget about the mileage penalty with 5w 40. I'd say it would drop about 10 percent due to increased load on the oil pump.

I had a similar experience running 5w 50 on my 2.0 L Cavalier one hot summer! Though I lost more like 15% of my mileage. But I went from about 40 PSI to 70 PSI O.P. at idle!

[lakersfan1]

A 2 MPG penalty just in switching weights? That's a little extreme. My wife's car has been running on 5w40 for over 100K miles (since new) and she gets 27MPG with a rating of 23C/29H. Then again, it's all been synthetic oil, so maybe using synthetic counteracts some power sapping of running 40 weight. But I still don't see a 10% difference. That's extreme.