oil low pressure

bap98189

Rossy. wrote: »

Don't people ever check their oil/water levels anymore? Or does the average person now think a car is a "just add fuel" commodity

Never mind tyre pressures, one of my colleagues take her car into the garage when it runs out of screenwash. Yes, she actually pays them to top it up. We think she's crazy and have even offered to do it for her, but she's convinced a mechanic should do it. :eek::eek:

gilbert_and_sullivan

hyltonlad wrote: »

thanks for all the replys i do check oil,water,brake and cluctch fluids every week but this warning light flashing shocked me.
hyltonlad

Is it low on oil? If not how long since you had an oil and filter change?

How annoying that most makers have seen fit to remove oil pressure gauges from the dashboard, along with temperature gauges in many cases...seeing problems develop early saves them becoming big problems.

Strider590

They fit baffle plates into the oil sump of racing cars (or run a dry sump kit), to prevent oil sloshing about and away from the oil pump inlet.
Driving regular cars too hard into corners can cause damage, because if the oil pump becomes briefly starved of oil, the engine will have no lubrication for anything up to 10 seconds. Not good when a normal engine (with standard parts) with no oil at all in it, can destroy itself in less than 30 seconds.

So... Solution, get a car more suited to your driving style OR slow down

pwllbwdr

Rossy. wrote: »

where did you get that from?

What good is a low oil level indication light if the damage has already been done

sorry but that's just pure nonsense

That's precisely the point. It was a low oil PRESSURE light which the OP referred to, not a low oil level warning. If this has come about as a gradual loss/usage of oil over a period of time, the OP has probably been running with low oil level for quite some time.

Rossy.

I've just googled it and it seems quite a popular problem on the Picasso 1.6 / 1.8 petrol models

It seems that it usually stems from the oil filter?

Have a read here

Strider590

^^ Wouldn't surprise me if it stemmed from an awkward design that makes servicing very difficult and therefore unscrupulous mechanics don't do the work they're being paid for.

This was always an issue with previous car, a 2.0 Pug 306.... Decided to service it myself and found the spark plugs were minimum 5 years old and the batch date on the air filter showed to be 3 years old, all despite having a full dealership service history.

NeverAgain_2

...Have a read here...

A polite and helpful post from someone who is clearly a model member of the community.

Lum

Rossy. wrote: »

where did you get that from?

What good is a low oil level indication light if the damage has already been done

sorry but that's just pure nonsense

It's a low oil pressure light. There is a difference. Many of them are poorly implemented.

The problem comes because engine oil pressure varies regularly over the course of driving, for example using my own car, if you are engine braking the pressure sometimes drops to 12 psi, but if you are driving normally it rises to about 35 psi. If I were to drive it hard for a long period of time it would rise further.

When the car is idling it sits at about 14-15 psi.

Now if I was driving and the pressure reading was 15 PSI, that would indicate a level that is far far too low and damage is being done to my engine.

Cornering also affects the pressure as oil is pushed towards or away from the pressure sensor.

In the old days, cars came with a pressure gauge, it would move around all the time, and the owner was expected to be able to interpret this gauge and maintain the car appropriately. These days gauges are out of favour with so-called "idiot lights" being preferred.

The problem is you can't just set the idiot light to come on at 15 psi because then it would light up a false alarm every time you come to a stop at a set of traffic lights.

So Nissan set the light to come on at 4 psi to avoid false alarms. If you are actually driving the car and this light is on, your engine is already toast. If you are just idling and you turn the car off immediately you'll probably be ok.

The OP needs to deal with this before the light is permanently on.

Flying-High_2

Agree with the above... Roughly you'll be wanting around 10psi per 1000rpm.. give or take a few psi depending on engine... So if the Low pressure sensors designed to light up at as above @ 4psi you could be running around quite happily unaware of the Oil starvation problems the engine is suffering..... So not nonsense at all.

With it flashing up on the OPS car whilst chucking it around a bend... I'd be checking the Oil firstly.. as if it is low, the Oil will have moved away from the Pick up located in the sump.. causing no oil being picked up for a split second hence the light..

I dont think the Oil Filter has anything to with it.... If its blocked then the light would be on at Idle surely...

niggyp

i think you will find the oil filter on a 1.6 petrol picasso is probably one of the easiest and quickest one to swap compared to many cars, its a cassette type filter located on the front right (as you look at it) corner of the engine, nothing is covering it or preventing access to it so simple and quick to change
just make sure the manifold cats not hot though, its about 5 inch away from the filter...ouch!