My car has been down for about a year while I was away. I recently had a new clutch installed (Exedy twin) and swapped my useless mini-batt for an Optima red top in the trunk. Anyway, I'm finally able to drive the car again and have been babying it for about 500 miles to break in the clutch. In those 500 miles, I've been having some issues with my oil pressure. On some occasions the oil pressure will drop too low (watching a gauge) and the car will die when I push in the clutch and bring it to neutral (e.g. slowing down on an off-ramp or coming to a stop sign/light). I've also just recently noticed that the oil can warning light will illuminate when the car is running at idle or at least begin to flickr. Lightly tapping the throttle causes it to go away.

Any ideas what this could be caused by? The car only has basic bolt-ons. Perhaps the idle needs to be raised?

Many thanks in advance.

EDIT:
Problem solved. Bad pressure sending unit.

 

What does it read at idle and about 3000 rpm when the engine is warmed up? Pressure is way too low if the warning light is coming on. How many miles do you have on it? A worn bearing or damaged oil pump gears are usually the culprit.

 

57k miles on the car with a mild tune. Car only sometimes dips to low pressure when the clutch is depressed then rises again.

At idle the pressure reads around 100 kPa (~14.5 psi)
At 3k RPM the pressure reads around 500 kPa (~72.5 psi)

If it helps, my gauge sender is down by the oil filter.

Thanks

 

Do you have an idle problem?

 

Alright, I'm back with some more observations.

I've noticed that my oil pressure gauge will read just below 100 kPa whenever the oil light comes on/begins to flicker. 100 kPa corresponds to ~14.5psi so anything below that prompts the light.

At 3000 rpm when the oil is around 85 C the pressure reads around 425 kPa, which corresponds to ~61.6psi.

During my last few drives I have had times when the light does not come on at all. Could this be a voltage issue? Sometimes the idle just seems a bit weak so doing something like turning on the A/C will raise the idle just enough to make the light go away.

 

The light should come on at around 5 psi. I think you need a new sender.

 

New sender for the stock oil pressure indicator? Would that explain the sometimes rough idle and brief drop to low pressure when going into neutral sometimes? And sometimes causing a stall?

EDIT: Just read a lot of the posts on here about faulty oil pressure senders causing similar issues. I will replace and check back in. Could that explain the drop when pushing in the clutch though?

 

Worn thrust bearing maybe.

 

any update? I am having similar issues on my stock IX MR with only 44K. It happens only at idle.

 

Yes! Problem solved. Turns out it was a faulty/corroded sending unit. Total cost to fix at my local dealer was $182.80. More specific details in the thread that I just linked.

 

That confirms my suspicions that mine, it also on the way out. Just found the unit for $5 on rockauto.com. gotta love inexpensive repairs .