The Oil Light... - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

***SCT*** · 01-14-2010, 01:28 AM

... does it come on when the oil is super low? I hate to find out when the light comes on after it's damn near too late to add anything. One time, I check the stick and no oil was on it!!! It had lost like a quart and a half I think.

Rookie_One · 01-14-2010, 01:34 AM

check if the wire for the oil pressure sensor is good, because its often get corroded....

***SCT*** · 01-14-2010, 01:38 AM

I mean the thing works... turn the key, it comes on and goes off like it suppose to... I'm sure the wire is ok.

Just wondering if it'll come on when the engine is on the last drop of oil before it goes ka-fluey...

Blof-fan · 01-14-2010, 02:01 AM

Actually, the light does NOT indicate the oil level but it indicates if you have oil pressure!

It comes on when you start and disappears when there is normal oil pressure.

So if it comes on while you are driving, turn the engine of imidiately! It means you have no oil pressure! (which is never a good thing off course)
It could mean that the pick-up can't suck any oil in because of a low oil level. But if that is the case, it has been to low for a while already.

If you want to keep tabs on your oil level, just check the dip stick regulary (I do it at least once a month)

Other Toyota engines do have a low oil level indicator light (my Carina E GTi with 3S-GE engine does) but the Corolla does NOT!

***SCT*** · 01-14-2010, 02:49 AM

Ah touche!

I do take a look at my oil dipstick, especially when I've done a driving in excess of 75mph+ and/or when I have tendencies to *floor it*. I'll need to check the oil pressure with an oil pressure gauge maybe by thus coming summer, and maybe replace the pressure sender just incase it is faulty.

Thank ya's!

Flashmn · 01-14-2010, 10:02 AM

Quote:

I do take a look at my oil dipstick, especially when I've done a driving in excess of 75mph+ and/or when I have tendencies to *floor it

Going fast in a car or flooring it does nothing to the oil, dipstick is there to check if you have. Not a bad idea to check it, but dont get paranoid about it unless you have a leak/burning oil.

otherwise, pretty much x2 on the blof-fan's post.

eage8 · 01-14-2010, 10:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SCT

One time, I check the stick and no oil was on it!!! It had lost like a quart and a half I think.

are you burning oil or leaking oil?

***SCT*** · 01-14-2010, 01:44 PM

Whenever I drive in excess of 75mph+ and/or have tendencies to *floor it*. If I drive like a constant 60mph on highways with soft stops and go on city streets, I notice I lose no oil.

I may be burning oil when I'm excessively speeding and gunning it. That's pretty much the only time I see the oil drop down. And for some reason, if it does drops, it seems to be stable at the bottom mark on the dipstick.

There's no visible leaks, puddles, etc. Main seals are new, replaced them when I did the trans swap and timing belt. The valve cover is my only problem, but it leaks very little into the 1st spark plug hole. Other than that, I never noticed any smoke out the exhaust that would indicate oil is leaking into the cylinders.

It's gulping oil somewhere, just don't know where. Mind you, the engine is like 247000 miles. I put a quart in like every month, some time not needing as much, very rarely more than a quart. Not a consistent loss.

toyotaspeed90 · 01-14-2010, 03:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flashmn

Going fast in a car or flooring it does nothing to the oil, dipstick is there to check if you have. Not a bad idea to check it, but dont get paranoid about it unless you have a leak/burning oil.

otherwise, pretty much x2 on the blof-fan's post.

the example above was bad, but your statement is slightly wrong....

the 4a's are known for having considerably low oil pressure at idle.... in fact, the books state 4-6psi at idle is normal.... however, once off idle the pressure jumps up quite a bit.

the light will come on when the pressure is very low.... if you normally have good pressure (which I'm sure you have no idea since you only have a dummy light) and the light comes on, it's probably an indicator that you're very low on oil.

The dipstick only shows about a quart....

Flashmn · 01-14-2010, 04:34 PM

I dont think that was incorrect...

My 4A-F idle oil pressure is anywhere from 11psi hot to about 26psi when cold (confirmed with a mechanical oil pressure gauge). IIRC the workshop manual states that oil pressure should be over 3 bar over 3000 rpm.

toyotaspeed90 · 01-14-2010, 05:41 PM

I was just making the point that it depends on what his rpm speed is for the oil pressure readings....

Flashmn · 01-14-2010, 06:37 PM

Yes ofcourse and also the viscosity of the oil and temperature of it... But that light shouldnt flicker when the car is on, otherwise its time to inspect and expect something to be wrong, sender etc.

***SCT*** · 01-14-2010, 09:07 PM

I think my valve cover gasket is breached, hopefully not the cam seals. I noticed a small puddle about the circumference of a typical two-liter soda bottle, smaller than. I looked all under the car and I only found trace amounts up to the valve cover. I need to change the seal on the engine oil filler cap for sure. I don't think it explains the amount of loss of oil I have.

I run 5W-30 Synthetic Mobil1. I'll be changing the valve cover gaskets as soon as I can...

RED91SR5 · 01-15-2010, 02:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SCT

I run 5W-30 Synthetic Mobil1....

Good oil but it will find any old gaskets on older motors and leak like crazy. Move to some "for high mileage" synthetic 10W-30.

Blof-fan · 01-15-2010, 06:54 AM

The right oil can make a lot of difference. I don't know all the brands and whats more common on the other side of the ocean.

But I swear by Castrol GTX High Milage 10W40 oil.

I used other lubricants in the past and wasn't really picky when I had to fill up a little on oil. Whatever was available.
But I started to use Castrol oil and damn...the oil consumption of the engine became less and less!

My 4A-FE Corolla with already nearly 200.000km's on it had a consumption of about 1 liter on 5000km's. That was still pretty decent. But when I started using Castrol...after a few oil changes it had gone down to 1 liter on 10.000km's!

I started using it on my 3S-GE Carina E now aswell, since it did use some oil. Had to fill about a liter every 2500km's when I bought her...Still acceptable for this engine. But a bit much for me. After 2 years now and about 3 oil changes...I've gone down to about 1 liter on 5000km's and I think it can still only improve

And I know more people with the exact same experience

That stuff really works miricals if you ask me!