Oil light keeps coming on..

[theguru]

and the motor keeping stalling .

The exact words of my wife just after she said there was something wrong with the car.

Haven't had time to check it out but there is oil in it, so will have to investigate some more.

Makes you wonder what some people think warning lights are for?

And how far did she drive it in this condittion you may ask? I would guessimate 30kms at least.

Oh, and she did think about giving me a call from her mobile.

The car: Daihatsu Mira 3 cyclinder 0.7 ltr 12 valve EFI.

 

[TallPaul]

Well, if the light only comes on when it is nearly stalling (that is, when the RPMs drop too low) then the only thing wrong is the stalling problem. If you have say 15 psi at 800 rpm, then ad 400 rpm you might have only half that and that might be about the trigger point for the light.

I really like my mechanical oil pressure gauge. Used to have a malfunctioning warning "gauge."

 

[theguru]

I was thinking that may be the problem, well hoping really.

Unfortunataly being a very basic car gauges are pretty much non-existant. Just Petrol & water temp, plus of course speedo. These rest are lights.

 

[Chris142]

Does this car have an electric fuel pump? If it does then most likely the pump is turned off when theres no oil pressure.

This is a safety feature incase of an accident, once the engine stalls theres no oil pressure so the pump shuts off as to not keep pumping gas out of a wrecked car.

If the pressure keeps dropping as she drives along the fuel pump will stop too making the car stall.

 

[yugrus]

Change or bypass your fuel filter and see if it stalls. Severely clogged filter might let some fuel through initially, and the engine starts and runs. But then the differential pressure builds up and there's not enough fuel to feed this thing anymore. It slowly dies, and the oil light comes on because of insufficient RPM.
That happened to me, although with diesel vehicle.

 

[Gary Allan]

I go with the stalling being the issue. I doubt that she was driving along at 50kph and the oil light came on. I'll bet it was that she lost power and as it coasted to a stop ..the oil light came on with all other gauges apparently working fine.

She just didn't integrate the sequence of events and didn't communicate them well enough.

 

[kloppilt]

quote:

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Originally posted by theguru:
Daihatsu Mira 3 cyclinder 0.7 ltr 12 valve EFI.

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0.7 liter engine

 

[theguru]

Klopplit, actually 659cc. 5 door and seats 4 adults. Get just over 5 ltr/100 km running around town. Usually fairly short trips.

Guys,

Yes, communication seems to be the issue here. It was my wife who suggested it was the oil, so I had a sinking feeling inside.

Anyways, I think it was a low idle and have bumped it up a little. So far, so good.

 

[kloppilt]

45 mpg in the city! That's pretty nice.

 

[Tosh]

"Oh, and she did think about giving me a call from her mobile."
But she didn't want to waste your daytime minutes? Good girl!