1996 Camry oil pressure light problem

[navalfan]

Hi all,

First the facts: 1996 5SFE 4cyl engine with 196,000 miles.
Oil pressure light came on while driving. Engine runs smooth with
no tapping or other funny sounds. Replaced pressure sensor and
light still came on. Pulled oil pan off and looked at intake screen.
It was clean but I cleaned it and the oil pan too. Then I replaced the
oil pump with a Toyota factory pump. The oil light comes on intermittently
and now seems to be out. (for now...). I put a pressure gauge on the engine all through this process and was getting 0 psi at the gauge. Finally I ran some motor cleaner through it and blew about 100 psi of air back through the engine through the pressure sensor port. Now I'm getting about 17 psi at all
RPMs.
My Haynes manual says I should be getting 35-71 psi @ 3000 RPM. I'm still getting 17 psi.
Any thoughts or advice would be helpful. I'm starting to go crazy!

Thanks

Paul

[hooRAH]

Since you didn't meniton it I'm going to assume that it didn't jump out at you as being severe, but when you pulled the pan, how gunky did it look? It sounds like you're basically fighting clogged passages on this one just based on the fact that the motor cleaner + blowing out the oil galley at the pressure port yielded results.

I'm not sure what to recommend since you have taken all of the steps I would have. I'm 99% sure you have a problem reading the oil pressure rather than the actual oil pressure, as you said the motor seems to run okay. The motor might SOUND okay without actually being okay with 17psi, but if you had 0psi like you originally had, you'd have one clang-y motor. Since you didn't, I'm going to assume that you were misreading the pressure.

I'd honestly run another batch of motor flush and try to clean out the galleys, because if the area where the pressure sensor is is clogged up, so could the other oil passages, and thats not good.

Sounds like you're on the right track - keep us updated!

[navalfan]

Thanks for the info. When I pulled the pan off, it was squeaky clean inside.
The pickup screen too. It was kind of wierd because I tend to run cheaper oil in it. I thought there would be at least a little gunk in it. I guess it's all up in the oil passages! I'm going to blow it out again and run some more motor flush through it. We'll see......

Paul