i know you've heard it all before...

[Tha Realist]

lately when the idle is down (under 1000) the oil light comes on. it does'nt flash but it flickers. of course the oil has been checked. i just put a new alt on and i changed both fuel filters. the vac lines have been checked. also i put an accel coil on (got it for free so what the hell right) how hard is it to change the oil pump?do i have to take the engine out or is there an easier way?thanks fellas

[NXRacer]

its probably a dirty pickup filter in the oil pump, or your oil pump is going out. Might want to keep an eye on it.

[mouchyn]

why not buy yourself a $10 oil pressure gauge and see what's up?

changing the oil pump isn't all that "hard." You just have to take apart a lot of the bottom half of the engine. If you're careful, it's not bad. If you've never done it before...there's a lot of room for engine-killing error.

it's probably not a bad idea to do one of those engine flushes. if it is a clogged pick-up, that could clean it up some.

[Tha Realist]

what kind of engine-killing error?

[mouchyn]

putting bearings back in wrong, installing seals improperly, scoring rod and crank journals, not torquing bolts to honda specs, etc.

[carotman]

Actually mouchyn, the oil pump is really easy to replace on the A20A (they can't be bad on every aspect). The newer honda engines have their pump directly driven by the crankshaft like you said but the A20A is a little different.

The A20A uses the timing belt to drive the oil pump just like the newer engines use it to drive the water pump. The water pump on the A20A is driven by the alternator belt.

The oil pump set is Item # 2 on the diagram and costs 119.30 from www.torringtonhondaparts.com


If you ask me, this was a better setup. It makes the oil pump replacement a "moderate" job. It's like replacing the timing belt + water pump on the newer engines. You basicaly can't screw up the engine unless you mess the cam timing when reintalling the timing belt. If your timing belt has seen close to 60k miles, it might be a good thing to replace it at the same time.

Before attempting to replace the pump, make sure your oil filter isn't clogged. Replace it with a good brand and make sure the oil sensor doesn't leak either. Make sure the oil pickup isn't clogged (#6 on the diagram) but you got to remove the oil pan to do it. It's not a fun job, and you gota replace the pan gasket at the same time.