[abiram]

my check oil light came on in my 1991 mustang gt auto. i just changed the oil a couple of days ago. i checked the oil its full there are no leaks or smell or noises coming from the engine. the only thing wrong is the light coming on. is this just the sensor if so whats it going to do to the car, the car is my daily driver and i cant get it fixed due to finances, is this going to destroy the engine. like i said there is no missing oil and nothing unusual but the light.

 

[avsalom]

It shouldn't mess any thing up. A lot of older cars have lots of lights on and they run and work fine. It's norm just the sensor going out. Only thing that it does is bother you.

 

[macdaibhidh]

Odds are it is the sender but you can't take the risk of driving it that way. My approach is to blindly replace the sender - the labor is about the same as measuring the oil pressure, the part is cheap and has a fairly high failure rate. If the light goes back to normal all is well.

 

[imported_Nikki]

suspect faulty oil sender,have checked wiyh master gauge,if garage to far away,remove sender unit.disconnect coil,crank over and make sure oil comes out of sender hole in block.if ok refit sender .fit new one as soon as pos. if no oil dont drive.

 

[imported_Roderick]

When you changed the oil, did you reset the light? Also it could be the sensor in the pan.

 

[yorath]

does your car have a pressure guage and the usual red "oil can" (OLD school style) symbol, AKA "idiot light", or just the idiot light?

if its just the idiot light, assume your oil pump has failed and you have no oil flowing, you wont get 10 miles before the motor is ruined.

if you have a guage, and its reading normal, it may just be the sending unit for the additional idiot light has failed, but your oil system is still doing its job.


finances, figuring out what is wrong and fixing it is MUCH cheaper then getting a new motor or a new vehicle.
guage or not, it could be just a sending unit, or even a loose wire, and a very cheap fix.
or, you may have lost the oil pump and have ZERO oil flowing to protect your motor, and it WILL ruin the motor before you can drive a couple of blocks.

if you can locate the sending unit, make sure its connected 1st, then unplug the wire from it. have somebody look at the light with the wire disconnected and not touching anything, then touch the wire to the engine block (to ground), light should be off one way and on another IF the wiring and the light is good (guage tests similiarlly, will peg the needle at one end when disconnected, and the other when grounded).

sending units are easy to change and can be as cheap as $10. you probably need to put teflon tape on the threads to keep it from leaking, but its just a matter of spinning it off and spinning the new one on.


in case i havent made myself clear enough:
DO NOT DRIVE IT, DONT EVEN TRY TO START IT, until this has been fixed, that motor may be severly damaged in just seconds with no oil.