Oil light issue

[TDot]

Can someone please verify this for me. I took the car in end of march for maintenance check up. One thing they did was deal with the oil. The oil light popped up for 5 min or so about a week and a half after the maintenance. I took it as nothing. The oil light just came on yesterday. I haven't driven more than 600 miles or so since the maintenance...and no real aggressive driving. I called them and they said 1: "the oil light knows when it's been 3 months" essentially the cars oil light has a timer. 2: "the maintenance schedule info in the car triggers the oil light at every milestone". The first one I simply don't believe, and I don't know about the second one. Was the person I was talking to full of it? I'm unable to check the miles in the scheduling thing right now.

[TDot]

So i broke out the manual...in my phone...and I see the light actually indicates the oil pressure level, not low oil or maintenance, as far as what I'm reading. So....I guess....she really doesn't know what she is talking about? In that case, what is the meaning or implications of bad oil pressure?

[merlinq2]

Not sure if this helps. My car has an info center where I can look at the maintenance required and what interval it is scheduled for. In my car when I have passed the mileage for a service, my display screen will show an oil can telling me that I need to change the oil.

The light that came on in your car is not supposed to do that- as you have determined by reading the manual. I always check the oil level after an oil change, sometimes the staff they employ to do the oil change doesn't always get it right.

I had that happen to me when I used one of the quick change shops.

The other thing that I have found is that oil sludgging can cause the the passages to clog and keep oil from moving around the motor properly (low oil light and or low oil pressure). If your oil changes are longer than 4 months regardless of mileage driven change the oil regardless of distance traveled. Especially if you are one of those drivers that has a lot of frequent start and stops (short distances, short commutes, spend lot's of time in traffic jams etc)

I use the 90 to 120 day rule, meaning that I change the oil regardless of mileage no sooner than 90 days and no later than 120 days after an oil change.

Hope that helps

[szh]

Sorry I missed this earlier! An oil light in our cars is not an indication of an oil change interval - it means that the level or pressure is low! In either case, please check the engine immediately.

Measure the oil level when the engine is cold. If oil is low, and adding enough to the correct level causes the light to go away, then good!

If it stays on after the oil level is corrected, then turn the engine off and have it checked out (consider a flat-bed tow to the dealer).

It could be as simple as a bad filter that is clogged (but the bypass in the filter should take care of this normally ... a good reason to use the OEM filter, or at least one that is known to have a bypass). Or it could be worse, so best to avoid damaging your engine - that is an expensive repair!

Z

[szh]

I always check the oil level after an oil change, sometimes the staff they employ to do the oil change doesn't always get it right.

I had that happen to me when I used one of the quick change shops.

Yes, indeed! There are plenty of good reasons to not use one of those shops! Too many horror stories for my liking.

For my "in-between" standard service interval oil and filter changes", I find it safer to buy my own oil (6 quarts worth) and filter (OEM from the dealer) and take it to a local garage - they usually have very low turn-over and competent/experienced people ... unlike the quickie places! The places I go to usually allow me to watch them doing the work ...

And, yes, there have been two times in the past many years that I have asked for the tech to stop working on the car and asked for somebody else to finish up:

- one guy walked up and asked why I had given him a copper washer.
- another asked me why it was thicker than the old one.

Another guy forgot to remove the old copper washer on the bolt before starting to put the new one on - but he caught it just before I said something, so it was an honest mistake, not lack of knowledge.

I simply would not trust the quick places to get it right - you cannot watch them below the car. They have been known to leave (lose?) the screws that hold down the covers under the engine, etc.

Z

[merlinq2]

Yes to all of those issues. I use Nissan for oil changes and I take the car back to Infiniti for issues related to Infiniti- Nissan hesitates to work on certain issues and Nissan is pretty good about telling me that they can not/will not something before I book an appointment.

[CPJ LB]

It might be worth having the oil pressure sensor checked or even replaced...