Hey all,
Car is: '89 LS TII
Last week I was driving the Lancer around the city during a hot day, temps were up to just past the middle of the "normal" range on my stock gauge.
When I would idle at a stop, my oil pressure would drop the the very bottom of the normal range and the "check gauges" light would flicker on. If I gave it a bit of throttle to bump the RPM's up, pressure would rise and the light would turn off.
This was super concerning so I made sure to keep my pressure up at the stop lights.
Few days later, oil pressure had been good (as our days of been cooler). I did a coolant system flush and fill and drove her around a good while to fully heat cycle and mix my coolant. When I drove back home, upon idle, the oil gauge would then hover for a couple seconds and DROP all the way. Like the gauge was turned off almost. "Check Gauges" came on and if I hit the throttle, the gauge would jump back up to a normal range.
This scares me. I have a mechanical oil gauge on order and will be connecting that once it arrives to really get a reading pressure in psi. I'm thinking perhaps it's the oil sensor since I never heard any signs of poor oiling. No knocks, scraping sounds, etc.
I wanted to ask if you guys have come across an issue such as this. I'll post my findings over the next few days with the oil pressure gauge.
As long as the engine doesn't reach higher operating temperatures, the oil pressure remains normal even while idling. If the engine is not (thinning out the oil) that's when I get idle pressure issues.
Thoughts?