(G) Seicento - intermittent oil pressure light

Hello!

I have a 2000 Seicento Sporting, and on Saturday, after having driven in some rather impressive rain for about 30 minutes, the oil pressure light started flickering. I checked the oil level, which was fine, then called the breakdown service.

The breakdown man said that, since I had been sitting in traffic at the time, and the engine sounded like it was running smoothly, it sounded like an electrical fault, and recommended that I drive home then get a new oil pressure sensor fitted, which I did.

This made no difference, so some electrician guy had a look and apparently fixed something on the engine wiring loom.

By the time I had driven 800m from the garage, the oil light was back on again, and was still intermittent. When the car is cold, it seems to go off when the revs increase, and I still haven't worked out the pattern when the car gets warmed up - it mostly seems to be on, but goes off occasionally.

The guy at the garage still seems confident that this is an electrical problem rather than an oil pressure problem. I'm wondering whether or not oil pumps fail progressively, and whether or not there is something else going on.

The car was serviced about 500 - 1,000 miles ago. There may be problems with seepage from the oil sump (the breakdown man seemed to think there might be), but I've not yet managed to get that checked out.

What should I do now?

Thanks!

Change the oil filter. If there is a blockage in that area then the bypass valve will feed oil past the filter and the pressure switch causing the light to come on. An oil filter change will be a cheap and easy way of eliminating that possible cause. You might as well change the oil at the same time for peace of mind.

Making the light go off when you rev the engine is a sign of low oil pressure, as is the light staying on when the engine warms up. The oil becomes thinner when warm and pressure drops as a result. Either you have a blocked filter as mentioned above or your engine is shagged...

You say it was serviced 500 - 1000 miles ago? Are you sure that the oil and filter were changed? Some dodgy garages just change the oil and not the filter, or even put in the wrong grade of oil. It's possible that it's been filled with oil that's too thin, and this will cause low oil pressure because of the reduced viscosity.

Thank you!

I'm fairly sure the oil filter was changed at the last service - the garage I took it to has a good reputation. Having said that, the reason I didn't go back there for this one is because it appears that they put the fan belt on too tightly, which killed the alternator - I'm looking for somewhere good at the moment!

I shall get the oil and filter changed ASAP (will try for tomorrow morning); would you recommend a 10w40 semi synthetic oil, or is there a more appropriate one? Is the car safe to drive in the meantime? It's been driven about 30 miles since its initial failure. The garage it about 10 miles away from here...

This car just has so many little niggling problems! It's a good job it's so cute and fun to drive...

15w 40 or 10w 40 will be ok for a cento oil wise

possible bad earth if fault does not go away?