89 Reliant Oil Light Keeps Comming On

[K_Car_Guy]

Hey guys, What's going on?

I have a question for you all. I have a 1989 Reliant LE 2.5 I bought about a month ago,after patching a few holes in the floors to get it to pass a safety inspection it has been an awesome little car for the $300 that I paid for it. But it has a couple little issues, It seems everytime I'm driving on the highway at speeds no higher then 120 Kms/h The oil Pressure light will come on after I exit and come to a stop. If i shift into nuetral and keep the RPM's up it will go out but as soon as i shift back into drive and the RPM's drop it will come back on. It used to just happen after exiting the highway but i've noticed while cruising through town at the stop lights the light will come back on? I havent been driving it for a few weeks now in fear of screwing up the motor. Do you guys have any ideas as to what the problem might be?



Thanks,
Anthony

[dodgeariesguy]

1st of all check your oil colour and amount and report back on both if your oil is a chocolate milk colour you have big trouble this colour means oil and coolant mixing which would screw with oil pressure and cause the light to come on. Too little oil will put the light on as well so you might want to have an oil change done or just top her up if shes low. There is the possiblity of an oil leak but that would keep the light on. Too little might be the case as the oil circulating in the motor can't be measured so it may put on the light. This is all I can think of right now.

Will Hall

[Silverbeard]

Reminds me of a problem I once had, light would come on at odd times.After you confirm your oil is up etc. check the oil pressure with a real pressure guage which would screw into the spot where the pressure sender unit is installed. In my case it was an inexpensive sender (or sensor) that was the cause.
If the guage shows varying or low pressure, the oil pump may be the problem.
Martin

[K_Car_Guy]

thanks for the repliesgus

The Oil is New and is topped right up to where it needs to be. I does have a pretty bad Valve cover gasket Leak, But I keep a good eye on it and always keep it topped up. The oil color is always Clean and Clear. I will have to put a real Oil Pressure gauge on it, and see what the results are. If it turns out to be a Weak Oil Pump, Are they very hard to change?


Thanks Again,
Anthony

[85TurboAries]

it could POSSIBLY be a blocked oil passage

[TomChrysler]

Hi Anthony!

Is the oil filter new? Before digging into other areas, replace it. If you've just replaced it, replace it again. If this car sat for a while, before you bought it, odds are you are stirring up a lot of gunky deposits. So, it is likely that the filter is doing it's job well and becoming full. As the other members reported, you may also be dealing with circulation issues. But, try the filter first. It may save you some money. When it works, change it often during the next year to help clean out the engine.

Giving you my best,

Tom

[turbokcar]

what kind of oil are you using, it may be too thin.

[85TurboAries]

try 10w 40 or just 40weight
NEVER USE SYNTHETIC OIL!
i like napa brand (its rebottled castrol)
also wen doing the tranny use ATF+4
if you need anything else just ask me

[88 aries]

you possibly could have low oil presure. I run 5w-30 part synthetic, i will never go full synthetic for the fact of that stuff ruining my seals.

[bugs]

i understand the dodge aries is similar to the reliant....I have the 88 dodge aries and I noticed TWO "oil" indicator lights in my instrument cluster....

There is one above the Check ENgine Light, and one on the right side of my instrument cluster above the right blinker.

I'm just curious what the function or difference in the two lights is...? If anyone happens to know...? Is it a sort of "Oil Life Monitor" light by chance? lol.

I know when I turn the key to the on position, the one oil light (can't recall which off hand now though...) looks like an oil can. But they both just say "Oil" on them and was curious what the significance of each light was, if anything (which I'm sure there is...? lol)....there's no mention of the light or function in my Hayne's or Chilton manual that I got from the library either



BTW, I found it odd that my Chilton manual contains a maintenance schedule that has 7.5k/12 month OCI intervals! Hell....even my old 07 Kia Rio still had the 3k/3month maintenance