I was driving and came to a stop light, and after idling for a few minutes my check gauges light came on. I checked and according to my oil pressure gauge I was completely out of oil! The light turned green and I accelerated and the gauge went back up to about 1/4. I get home and pull into my driveway and let it idle for a bit, and once again it went down to empty. I checked the oil and it is completely full. I turn the car back on and let it idle, at first the gauge was showing 1/4 then it went down to empty after a minute or two. I got back into the car to shut it off and I detected a faint burning smell. What could be the problem(s)?

edit: I checked and I am not leaking oil

 

First thing, look up under the dash with a flashlight, and see if you can see any burnt wires. Did it start knocking or anything when the gauge showed 0psi? You may just need to replace the sensor. Was the burning smell more like plastic burning or oil? If you know what your doing, pull the instrument cluster out and check all the wiring you can get to behind it (not very much) but it is worth checking. If the only thing abnormal that happens at all is the guage going down (no knocking, rough running, smoke, etc) then I would say you either have a shorted wire or a bad sensor.



Just a minor note--- You oil hasnt been in too long has it?

 

It has been running a little bit rough lately, a small loss of power, nothing too bad. As far as the burning smell, I could not tell what is was as I turned off the engine as soon as I began to smell it. Also, I had fresh oil as the car was serviced recently.

 

I have a two more problems that came up and didn't want to make a new thread, as they may or may not be related to the oil pressure problem.

1. My temp gauge only works when my car is idling with the headlights on and when I start to drive it goes all the way down. Any other time, it does not work at all.

2. On the highway I take to work each day there are a few huge potholes and bumps that I have to avoid. To do so, I have to slow down to about 45mph from my usual 65mph otherwise I would bottom out really bad. However, whenever my speed drops to to about 45 my "Service Engine" light comes on. I don't slam on the breaks I just take my foot off the gas and slowly decelerate and then go over or around the bump but the light still comes on. I usually just speed back up to 65 and keep on cruising without any performance issues. The next time I have to take the car somewhere the light is off until I have to slow down again.

Any ideas on what may be causing these issues, and any more help on the oil pressure problem would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

My old 95 would do the same thing when I went below 2000 rpm when it was in gear. not sure why it did that though to be honest with you. I always wondered why it did that.

 

Well it is now sounding like you have an instrument cluster problem. Check you local salvage yards for one from a 94 or 95 with the same engine, 93 should work as I think the only difference is the yellow numbers, but dont know for sure. That should cure your disfunctional gauges unless you have a serious wiring issue. Cheaper to try the cluster first unless you can trace all the wires.


Problem two, SES light when slowing from above 50 MPH with light resetting itself at next start cycle--- EGR valve. Try giving it a little bit of gas while your slowing down from above 50, it doesnt take much at all, just enough to keep it from idleing while your slowing. If no light then you know where your problem is. I've driven mine this way for 3 years now. Much cheaper and easier than replacing the egr valve. I will point out however, this will put more wear on your brakes and trans. You just have to find a good spot for your car as far as how much throttle you give it. I try to keep mine about 900 - 1000 rpms untill I hit 50, so not much of a wearing issue. I have noticed better gas mileage doing this over letting the light come on and stay on the rest of the drive. If it does happen to come on, I wait untill I can find a good spot to pull over and just shut it off for 30 seconds to let it reset and go on my way.


If you do change out your cluster, be sure to write down your current actual mileage and put it somewhere that will stay with the car, as well as the current mileage on the replacement cluster. You do not want to deal with odometer fraud later on. Most states "require" you to report this with a local law enforcement so they can give you a paper to keep with the car and verify mileage. I can however send you a link to set your new cluster to your current mileage...... if you feel your able to take the cluster apart and follow some instructions. I do have to warn you though, the act of "rolling back" an odometer is HIGHLY illegal, so I advise you to not lower the mileage on your car, even if it would make you feel better when you hop in and see you have a low mileage car. If you put lower than actual miles, if you ever go to sell the car or have an insurance claim, and they catch it, the po po will want to have a chat with you.

 

Thanks a lot for the advice, I tried it on my way to work today and it worked. The light did come on when I got to a stop light but I had to stop at a gas station nearby anyway and shut the car off to reset the light.

As for the instrument cluster, I am going to check the wiring as you suggested before I replace the cluster entirely.

Thanks a lot for the help.

 

You egr may actually be bad, mine has a bolt busted and just has a slight leak. That should help out with some of your SES light untill you can afford a new egr valve. I think last time I checked they ran around $300 for our engine.... might try taking it off and cleaning it with carb or brake cleaner or unplug and plug it back in to see if maybe the plug is corroded. If you decide to take it off, be sure you can have a little down time in case the bolt breaks off in the exhaust manifold. Might be easier to get one from the salvage yard. good luck and let us know what you find out.


Also a good tune up may help with your egr problems as well. I ended up gutting my catalytic converter because the people that had it before me aparently never did any maintenance, it was half plugged up from running fouled plugs. It just unbolts on our cars, yours may be different, but mine was just slipped on over the y-pipe and bolted at the back so it was a quick process. If you live in a non emission checking state, this might be something you want to look into. At least pull it apart and see if its melted or damaged. You can also pull it off and put a straight pipe in its place and sell the cat to a recycler. There is a guy on here on the forums that buys them, and I have a guy around here local that buys them from me for a little more because I own a shop. The cat on our cars brings $110/each here at my price. Wish I would have known that before I just gutted mine. Anyway, check into that and see what you can find out about your cluster and let us know.

 

OK, just got my car out of the shop. Got a fresh set of plugs and wires as the old plugs were junk. My catalytic converter was a bit clogged up just as yours was as the previous owners did not take care of the car (I recently bought mine). My mechanic took the cat off and got all the crud out of there and clamped it back on. The exhaust sounds a little louder than normal due to the cat not being welded directly on but the car is running smooth. That seems to have taken care of the EGR problem too as my light has not come on since. The EGR seems to be undamaged as it is not melted or anything. I do plan on replacing the cat sometime soon as it is a little banged up, but it is good enough for now.

As far as the oil pressure issue, that was cleared up by replacing the sensor and switching from 5w30 to 10w40 oil. Now the pressure stays at a comfortable level and I don't have to glance at it at every stop light. Also, the mechanic checked out some wires under the dash and found a bad one and replaced it for me. The temp gauge is now working fine.

Thanks for all the help 95camaroinok.

 

no problem, glad you got it fixed