Oil Light On (1 Viewer)

[Ducks]

I'm borrowing my dad's 1997 FZJ80 while my FJ60 is getting a 12H-T diesel swap. He just recently bought it. It has 136,000 miles on it. Anyways, when I first drive it in the morning, after a couple of minutes the oil light comes on. It stays on for a few minutes and then it goes off. The oil pressure is constant during this time. I've checked the oil level on the dip stick and it is fine. What is causing the light to come on? Thanks.

 

[CruiserCliff]

Ahhh.... my first educated answer. I had the same problem. According to what I was told, you have to check the oil when the engine is at normal operating temp, on flat ground and turned off for a few minutes. I was having the same exact problem! I did that... oil was low, added a quart... POW and no oil light! Give it a try.

Cliff

 

[jlg32281]

change the oil and re-fill with 8 qts. if you get ambitious. if it's low, it's probably been a while since and oil change.

 

[Steelbender77]

Yup, should be an easy fix.

Drive it around for a bit to get the temp normalized and just add oil.

Or surprise Dad and change his oil for him, maybe with something thicker since you're 100k+.

 

[nakman]

Known issue, and many will do it even with plenty of oil. Search for "low oil light" I bet you come up with quite a few...

edit: here's one of my favorites https://forum.ih8mud.com/80-series-tech/24818-low-oil-light.html

 

[Ducks]

Known issue, and many will do it even with plenty of oil. Search for "low oil light" I bet you come up with quite a few...

edit: here's one of my favorites https://forum.ih8mud.com/80-series-tech/24818-low-oil-light.html

Thanks nakman. Great thread.

 

[GeoRoss]

I had this problem once. I had put a new oil in from Shell and would get this light on intermittently until I changed the oil back to Chevron.

There was plenty of oil, just this oil (I can't remember the specifics) caused the light to go on every so often. It has never come back on since.

My advice, change the oil.

 

[aclos3]

I get the same thing. Comes on for up to 10 seconds shortly after startup about one in every five starts (often the same part of the road). I use 5W-30 Mobile One and have put about 6500 miles on the oil so far. Once, I added 1/4 of a quart, but only because I was starting the truck for the first time in 10 weeks.

I recently checked the oil level on my cold engine (need to check it warm) and it read slightly below the middle of the range. I only added about 7.5 quarts at the last oil change, so its probably never been completely "full." The oil light didn't start coming on until about 3 months ago, which made me concerned that the engine is consuming oil. Being barely broken in at 167,000 miles, I expect zero oil consumption. I'm only being partially sarcastic, these engines are so smooth and well built that it is rare for them to consume oil and I get alarmed easily about my cars. I won't mention the time I was absolutely convinced that my head gasket was going out when it turned out to just be a leak in the heater hose from a recent coolant flush I'd performed.

Bottom line is, I love threads like these. They put my paranoia to ease! On a serious note, I am switching to 10W-30, we'll see if that makes any difference in my next year of driving.

 

[arndog123]

My '97 did the same thing running on Mobil-1 5w30. Switched over to Mobil-1 10w30 and the light has never come back on.​

 

[aclos3]

I figured 10W-30 might fix the issue since mine seemed to come up when the weather got warmer. I don't drive enough to change oil twice per year or I'd probably run 5W-30 in the winter and 10W-30 in the summer.

 

[Ebag333]

I figured 10W-30 might fix the issue since mine seemed to come up when the weather got warmer. I don't drive enough to change oil twice per year or I'd probably run 5W-30 in the winter and 10W-30 in the summer.

15w-40 seems to help mine. I had 5w-40 put in last time, comes on a lot more often now.

 

[aclos3]

I already bought the 10W-30 for my upcoming oil change in six weeks. I think it will help a lot because I barely get the light as it is now. I will consider 15W-40 if the issue comes up throughout the next year, thanks for the tip.