oil pressure light.. help me think

[bowlofturtle]

Its been a while since i touched a toyota but i'm looking to buy a car and most cars are the same, looking to see if i'm overloooking in some areas or not.

$500 gets me a 91 white mr2. with 170k miles and oil pressure light being on.

He told me all of a sudden oil pressure light came on and he took it to a mech. and they told him 1700 for new engine and he left and is selling.

first off i'm assuming it is a 5sfe, I'm thinking oil sludge at most. But the easy stuff first possible oil pressure sens bad, oil pump screen clogged, oil pump failing are my thoughts. I thinking if it aint a easy fix its time to throw in an engine either 2.2 or the turbo. Anything i forgot bout the 5sfe to make this a non-so common problem?

1. oil level
2. oil leaks
3. oil sensor
4. oil pump
5.sludge

I kinda ruled out #1 AND POSSIBLE #2/3 since a mech looked at it. but then again he might try to sell him junk. He told me it was on solid and thats all i got from him as he was in a rush. More info morrow. Just wanted to look at this with a clear thought on what to target more or less

[tHa kNiGHt FaLL]

theres an oil pressure light...?

check the oil pressure yourself... get a gauge for like 30.00 and check it out yourself...

a manual gauge will not lie to you... you need to figure out if its low oil pressure... or no oil pressure.

low oil pressure could be a bad pump... or most likely worn bearings.

no oil pressure could be a broken drive shaft for the pump... or spun bearings...

usually a tech should tell you why... you need a new engine

[bowlofturtle]

as of now, i dont know what the tech told him. I figure the 1700 scared him into selling it.

I' m looking to buy and fix problem or swap.

[MR2Jedi]

Originally Posted by bowlofturtle

as of now, i dont know what the tech told him. I figure the 1700 scared him into selling it.

I' m looking to buy and fix problem or swap.

For $500.00 I would buy the car and fix it no matter what the problem was. Either repair, rebuild or put in another engine...It would be worth it. Even if you spent 4-5K, you would have a good 2 !

[tHa kNiGHt FaLL]

Originally Posted by MR2BAD

For $500.00 I would buy the car and fix it no matter what the problem was. Either repair, rebuild or put in another engine...It would be worth it. Even if you spent 4-5K, you would have a good 2 !

you could part it out stock and easily make twice that.

i could use a few interior pieces myself... it being white.... so most likely blue interior. definately send some shit my way

[MR2Jedi]

Originally Posted by tHa kNiGHt FaLL

you could part it out stock and easily make twice that.

i could use a few interior pieces myself... it being white.... so most likely blue interior. definately send some shit my way

yeah, you could do that.. But I thought he wanted an MR2...

[idae86]

what about the oil pickup. It could be out of adjustment causing it to not get the right amount of pressure causing the light to come on. I dont know toyotas to well but i know on hot rods and what not that is normally the issue that cause low or no oil pressure.

[idae86]

i dont know if thats the right name for it but the unit the sucks the oil in is what im talking about.

[OEMonkey]

bowloft,

verify first if it is indeed the oil pressure light that is lit.

On MKII Turbo cars (and maybe on non-turbo as well), there are 2 oil lights. 1 under the temp gauge - red oil can, this is the oil pressure light. 1 under the trip odometer reset button - amber oil can w/ squiggly line below, this is the oil level light. So if it's just the amber light that is lit, oil level is low or there is an open on the sensor. Most people break the oil level sensor when re-sealing the oil pan. The sensor needs to be removed(snaked out carefully) before dropping the pan, otherwise you break the sensor when you remove the pan. It gets caught on the pick-up, breaking the float.

[tHa kNiGHt FaLL]

Originally Posted by MR2BAD

yeah, you could do that.. But I thought he wanted an MR2...

yea... i was agreeing w/ the fact for whatever its worth... 500.00 is worth any sw20 doesn't really matter the condition

[MuMan]

bump