oil pressure light on 1994 Camry 4 cyl

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I know that sounds silly but granted that your oil pressure readings are rather consistent over the course of a week or so (sometimes stuck on 15psi regardless of rpm, etc.), I'm afriad to say that something inside your engine is not right.

Sorry Don, I refrain from making uneducated guesses (as you should have know me by now) from this point onwards.

also: your engine has been running syn throughout it's life and it's a quart low? Humm...is your engine burning oil by any chance?

Also: if you are mechanically competent and adventurous, taking off the oil pan to inspect the oil pickup screen would be a desirable thing to do.
 
I might consider taking off the oil pan except its 20F out and it snowed 18" last night in NY. As for the car being low on oil, I do not understand that. It will run fine and loose no oil for months, but on two occasions it seems to have gone down by 2/3 of a quart over a 2 week period with nothing else unusual happening.

So the mechanical gauge is still attached to the engine. I will start up the engine and see what the initial pressure is after its been sitting cold for 24 hours. If it does what it did when I first attached the mechanical gauge, that is go to 15 lbs and not vary until I restart the engine then I will consider what to do. If the gauge varies between 20 and 50 (by RPM) then I will assume its the pressure sender switch and whatever odd thing happened (gauge reading 15 lbs) when I first connected it up was due to the gauge never being used for 15 years.
 
I am thinking that Quest may be right. I started the engine cold today with the mechanical gauge in it and same as yesterday, the pressure goes to 15lbs and stays. Does not vary by RPM once it reaches 15lbs. Turn engine off and back on and pressure is as it should be, varies from 20 to 50 by RPM.

Can I try some type of cleaner/flush? MMO or Amsoil flush or AutoRX. Or try something for the short term and something else for the long term.

I do not see how it can be a clogged or partially clogged screen given that things change when you turn engine off and back on. I am thinking a oil pressure relief valve?
 
Mileage? maintenance history? valve cover off for sludge inspection? oil pan off for sludge inspection? brand of oil? oil weight? oil filter brand and PN?

Use a thicker oil and thin it out a little with a pint of Rislone or MarvelMystery at each oil change. Keep the OCI at 3k or 3mo.
Check oil level weekly and under the same circumstances, like engine hot, on level surface, exactly 3 minutes after shutdown......
Thicker oil recommendations are Castrol 0w30, Mobil 0w40, or ANY 5w40.
Use cheap oil filters like Supertech, Fram, or Purolator. Avoid possibly restrictive high end boutique filters. Upsize filter if possible.

I'm also thinking your mech gauge is broken. Test it on another vehicle if possible.

If pan/VC removal isn't feasible, find a mechanic with a flexible borescope to look into your engine for sludge or buildup.

Inspect the PCV system since it might be a cause of issues. Replace PCV valve.

Throw in a new oil PSI sender and keep on driving.
 
hmm - I'm not sure how much I trust the mechanical gauge. Seems to me it should move regardless....but I guess it depends where the oil idiot light mech sensor is located in the oil circuit.

I'm not sure what flushing will do.

Personally I would screw a new sensor in. How much do they cost?
 
I swapped in a 2nd mechanic gauge and it did the same thing. Oil pressure builds slowly until it gets to 15 or so then stays there. Turn engine off and back on and it goes to 20, then varies with RPM up to 50 at 3000RPM. So something happens when engine is turned off and back on. Very noticeable from a gauge.

I'd gladly pay the $25 and replace the oil pressure switch, but it sure seems there is something odd here and would like to understand it before replacing the switch. Even if the oil pressure light never came on again (because the oil pressure was always above 5lbs), if the oil pressure stays at 15lbs all the time that is not good when it should vary between 20 and 50 lbs depending upon RPM.
 
OK - I agree - since you ruled out the mechanical gauge.

I wish I knew the design of the pressure relief and oil system on your engine. Have you checked on a Toyota Board? (BiTTG) Maybe someone will have gone down the same road before.
 
Since oil PSI is good after the restart, you're stuck with starting the engine twice each time.

Sounds like a sticking oil pump relief PSI regulator.
Inspecting the engine for varnish or sludge would help confirm or rule the regulator out.
Any sludge and varnish buildup would make an easy assumption that the same buildup is foiling the oil pressure regulator in the pump.

This is why I'll re-recommend a pint of Rislone or Marvel and
Since you're up north, an oil that flows well(synthetic) would be a good choice. And, if you choose Rislone or Marvel, stepping up a weight would be a good idea. But at this point, the cheapest 10w40+pint of Ris/MMO and a new filter is what I would do now.

You should also cut open any used oil filters from that engine to see if there is any crud or clogging.

Also, depending where the oil PSI sender is located in relation to the oil filter, a defective oil filter can cause PSI measurement issues.

You need 5psi hot oil pressure at idle. You want 40+psi hot oil pressure above 3k rpm. Cold oil pressure isn't worth measuring because pump and filter in any state of bypass will screw up comparison readings.

Since some sludge/crud floating in the pan can be an issue, if the pump strainer picks up something with clogging potential, a shut down and gravity might just remove the offending sludge.
 
OK, while awaiting for my Amsoil Flush to arrive I bought a Bosch filter and installed it replacing the Amsoil Ea filter. No oil change. Started engine and oil pressure rose up to about 35 lbs. And oil pressure varies with RPM as one would expect. Is the Ea filter (with 6K miles on it) defective? On the Camry its angled slightly above horizontal, but no oil came out, and that means the anti drainback valve was not working. I am almost certain oil has come out before when I unscrewed the filter, but in those cases I unscrewed the oil filter within 10 minutes of running the engine. This time engine was not run in a day.

But if the oil filter was clogged or not, or pressure relief valve in filter working or not, I would not expect the low oil pressure at startup like I have had.
 
Quote:

On the Camry its angled slightly above horizontal, but no oil came out

Click to expand...


came out of where?

I'm at a loss....here...it seems odd that an oil filter would cause such pressure behavior. Especially the stop and restart issue and the pressure drop while driving.
 
As one unscrews the filter some oil normally comes out in the gap between the filter and the mounting base. Hard to know whether its from engine or filter, but assume filter. By the time the filter is fully unscrewed, the oil is done coming out.

Talked to Amsoil and they want the filter back to examine it.
 
Quote:

Camry its angled slightly above horizontal, but no oil came out, and that means the anti drainback valve was not working.

Click to expand...


To me this means the opposite - if no oil came out of the filter, then the ADBV is holding oil really well in the filter. The fact than no oil came out said that something was blocked in the engine. Changing filters may have dislodged whatver was causing the blockage.
 
After changing the filter I drove the car a few times today far enough to make sure the car was fully warmed up, checked the mechanical gauge under the hood from time to time. Next I reinstalled the old oil pressure switch and the oil light never came on during another 30 minutes of driving.

Could it be as simple as a clogged and defective oil filter (pressure relief did not work) and in this car the oil pressure switch is after he filter? The oil pressure switch is on the opposite end of the block from the pump and up high on the block just below the head.
 
This seems so odd to me. Filter could have been clogged....but why would it be cured by stopping and restarting and not coming back until next cold start? Bypass defective at the same time. I'm struggling with this.....
 
Its either defective(did it work for 1st 5k miles?) or clogged(you have a sludge monster brewing).

Glad to see it was fixed with an oil filter. Gee, I did say to try 'cheap' oil filter and to change out at 3k. A simple filter change solved the problem. I even mentioned not to use a boutique filter. Too funny!

This filter needs to be dissected, either by you are Amsoil. If it isn't defective, it might be clogged and you would want to know which one.

Restart could simply move sludge around filter or allow ADBV to flex out of the way, or bypass valve to pop open!
If there is crud blocking either ADBV or BPV, you will want to know.

Also, if filter is clogged and oil pump relief opens, its possible that the oil pump relief won't close fully until restart because of a weak spring or varnish binding the valve!

I wanna see pictures of the filter disassembled and the VC removed.

What oil was being used? Maintenance history would be nice!

Noone remembers this 3k oil filter?
http://img190.imageshack.us/img190/6901/bimmerfilter4qm6cj.jpg
 
The filter is going to Amsoil as the filter was their and the oil (ASL) was theirs. Maybe a warranty issue?? I can now assume that when the oil pressure light came on, the oil pressure was indeed low. Could engine damage have happened? Thank #@$%! synthetic oil was in the car.

The car was run on Mobil 1 for its first 110K miles by my Dad and he probably did oil & filter changes at 5K or 6K. I switched it to Amsoil (next 50K miles) ASL oil along with SDF and now Ea filters doing changes and analysis out to 12K. All the oil analysis came back fine with the silicon slightly high. Some of my oil analysis is posted under that section aways back.

The air filter is changed at a normal interval as was the PCV. The EGR may need cleaning but that is all I know that may be wrong.
 
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