6G Celicas Forums

Hey guys, I've been noticing lately that my oil light on my dash will flicker when I come to a stop. If I put the car in neutral (yes it's an auto) the oil light will stop flickering, but when it is in gear, it flickers. My oil level is topped up so it isn't that. This has been going on for a while but it seems like it went away for a while or I wasn't noticing but I sure am now!

I recently had my timing belt, water pump, cam seals and crank seals replaced. I did have a defective oil pressure sender unit in the past and they replaced it with the current one. I am wondering if it is also faulty? Heck I don't even know where it is located on the 5S-FE.

I tried googling the issue and there's a lot of things that it could be including the oil pump in the pan or the strainer being clogged.

Anyone else run into this issue and figure it out?

The last time i had that issue it turns out the oil pump pulley was the problem....it flickered at idle and went off while driving. Not to long after it started to make this god awful noise. The pulley started to bounce around the bolt it rides on basicly going from a circle to an oval. So if you start hearing noises accompanied by flickering light i would check there. I would start by checking your wiring first as its alot easier than pulling it all apart.

its in the head, take it out and with the ignition unplugged get someone to crank the starter over a little bit, see if oil flows out the hole

What oil weight are you running?

yeah thats a bad idea, even with the engine just cranking, oil will shoot out and go everywhere.

Check the connector on the oil pressure sensor. it might be making a bad connection.

I did that not too long ago to see if the oil had any metal shavings in it before taking the head off, and oil oozed out of the sides of the head into the cams, it didn't exactly shoot out.

Should be 10w30, could be 5w30. Unfortunately i had a voucher for a free oil change at a mechanic that i use most of the time and I didn't ask what went in. The oil change was only about 1600 kms ago.

I noticed that it didn't happen yesterday or today (so far). Strange...

I had the same thing happen on my '96 Jeep Grand Cherokee: stop, and the oil pressure needle dropped to zero, chime goes off, and a message saying "Check Guages" came on. After a month of this, I got tired of it, and paid $20 for a new sending unit. The telltale sign on the Jeep was oil seeping past the sending unit, and onto the female connector. It took longer to drive to Autozone than the actual job.

come to think of it i re-read the original post, the speculation is meaningless unless u have an oil pressure gauge

being that a standard motor shouldnt need one, u shouldnt be driving or cranking until that dummy light sender is replaced and further diagnosis taken place

rebuild price could shoot up from oil pump replace to block or crank replacement with the big end bearings

That happened to my car too. 5s auto
Excuse me cause i dont know the correct terms. (maybe it was just my luck or something) but I replaced my oil pan from one out if a camry. The camry had some sender unit or something that the celi didn't and couldn't accept due to space inside (pans were a little different) after that the light flickered. I checked the oil and thought is just some sensor acting up.

Long story short my bearing went out soon and needed another rebuild/engine


Like I said maybe just my luck and completely u. Related to ur prob but I figured it can't hurt to tell

it doesn't mean anything. it's just the oil sensor taking a min. to build pressure. Could be sludge could be any number of things.
What I would do.... is nothing.
Maybe start running pennzoil to help get the sludge out etc. But mine does it every day. Check your oil level and if it's fine, I wouldn't worry about it.

If he'd described it as happening on start-up, I'd agree with you. However, his description ties the problem to RPMs; once the engine is running for a minute, oil pressure should be if not constant at least great enough to not trigger the low-pressure warning.

Missed that part of the story. Oops.
Yeah should not be a problem while running