Oil light blinking?

[ECKO1980]

My girlfriend recently aquired an 88 accord, when you come to a stop and the car is idling the oil light will flicker. Also while you are driving for an extended period of time the oil light will come on and flash. Any idea of what could be going on? bad oil pump? The car I believe is an LX carb model.

The car is in great shape apperance wise with 150,000 miles, she got it as a gift from her dad. The guy he bought it from said it never used to do that before they put synthetic in it? lol

Any ways any help would be greatly appreciated. I dont know much about these accords, although I am a honda enthusiast. I have a 93 civic that has been motor swaped and turbo'd

[ZackieDarko]

welcome to the site

[shepherd79]

well, if it was my car i would switch to a regular oil. older honda engines were not designed for synthetic oil.
change the oild for regular oil. use good quality filter and see if it goes away. if it doesn't, most likely oil pump is out and will need new one.

[AccordEpicenter]

oil pump and main bearings

[MessyHonda]

to 3geez

anyways you should change the oil to the regular stuff and change the oil filter. you might want to add a bottle of oil aditive. if that does not work its most likey the oil pump is going out.

[AccordEpicenter]

20w50 might buy you some time

[thegreatdane]

You have a very low oil pressure. If it's the main bearings it will only get worse the longer you keep on driving the car. Try changing the oil to a semisynthetic 10w40 or a regular 15w40 and when you drain out the old oil, drain it into a cone or something similar with a piece of cloth over it that's rough enough to let the oil pass through it easily. That way you filter out any small parts that was hidden in the motoroil, and if you find any small shiny or copper colored metal flakes it means that your bearings are toasted..

[ECKO1980]

Yea thats pretty much what I figured thanks guys! How hard is it to change the oild pump on these cars? I supose its time for a manual and an oil change lol

[mkymonkey]

ok guys i have the same problem. and im afraid to admit that when i changed the oil pan, i found small gold colered shavings in there. so how exactly is this bearing changing process go. i already bought an oil pump so thats done, but how do i change these "bearings"

[BITESIZE]

You will need some plastiguage to measure the clearances of the journals. You will need a oil pan gasket too. You should have told me, i would have sent u some plastiguage with the pump.

[shepherd79]

well, the best way to do is to pull the motor. put on engine stand and change them or even do a small rebuild.
the hard way, is to leave the engine in the car and change them from under the car.

[thegreatdane]

take out the engine, since the transmision has to come off anyway. Inspect the crankshaft for scoring on the journals, they might be discolored without yet being damaged. Check for scoring by running over the journals with one of your fingernails. If you feel any scores, the crankshaft will have to get it's journals resurfaced and you need to get oversize bearings. (very very very small scorings might be ok though) The bearings will most likely look the worst on mains 2,3 and 4.

[2oodoor]

20w50 might buy you some time

20w50w may be the problem, a lot of synthetics early versions were mega weight and the thickness and unwillingness to break a bubble may have the oil sender malfunkeding..... or not( not that Epicenter is wrong )
If it was my car with 150k, that is low miles really even for a car that was not super maintained, accord that is, I would run castrol 10w 30w for a few weeks and keep it changed, check oil sending unit and wire. I would change the oil every 1000 miles for the next 4000 then go to regular 3000 intervals.

Its always hard to tell when you dont have the car in front of you aint it !!! maybe the glass is half full and not half empty..

[AccordEpicenter]

its just that the main bearings in these cars tend to be beat very hard, ive seen it in a bunch of a20s... Im not saying that thats what it has to be but it is probably the problem or it has somthing to do with it. Ive seen the oil pressure relief valves stick and leak oil pressure in hondas before too

[ECKO1980]

So I drained the oil just now and didnt notice any kind of metal or debries (out of the ordnary) in the bucket even ran a magnet around in there and didnt come up with any thing.

should I change out the oil pump? how hard and where is it located? I have never done an oil pump before.

My girlfriend said that the car died on her 3 times today on the way home from work at lights.....this could possibly be another issue with the carb maybe?

[LiTtLe xOx BitT]

The light came on in my car before because i didnt have enough oil, all i did was put in more and it never did it again.

[shepherd79]

is the idle is too low, the oil pump won't turn fast enough to make enough oil pressure. thus the light would start blinking with low idle.

[AccordEpicenter]

my car would randomly stall when i was losing my main bearings. you should drop the oil pan and pull main caps 2, 3, 4 and check the clearances on those journals. I bet when you pull those caps youll see some pretty shredded bearings

[Oldblueaccord]

So I drained the oil just now and didnt notice any kind of metal or debries (out of the ordnary) in the bucket even ran a magnet around in there and didnt come up with any thing.

should I change out the oil pump? how hard and where is it located? I have never done an oil pump before.

My girlfriend said that the car died on her 3 times today on the way home from work at lights.....this could possibly be another issue with the carb maybe?

I'd verify what the oil pressure is before rebuilding the motor. Get a guage or take it to someone and have them check the pressure. The oil pressure guage sender unit goes where the honda one is,on the oil filter housing, if you dont want to keep the guage put a new Honda sender back in it.


If the idle is very very low the oil light may flicker a little. A magnet is a good idea on the oil pan but bearings are copper,lead so they wont pick up. If you kept your oil filter Id cut it open and see whats in there as well.


wp

[ECKO1980]

Well im not terribly concerned about this motor seeing as it is a free car, I would just like it to be as reliable as possible. Rebuilding the motor is not an option as the car was free so if it dies the motor will get junked.

I did find an 87 accord that is wrecked that has a strong motor and sliping tranny for $100 Would this motor bolt into my g/fs 89 accord with out troubles? I emailed the guy to see if it is carbed also if it is I may go take a look at it.

[ECKO1980]

Hmmm just found out the car is F/I ......I assume that would be a project. or maybe I could just use the long block?

[lostforawhile]

I think everything will bolt up but the dis if I am correct,there is a way to make the carb dis fit on there too but I don't remember how

[ECKO1980]

well oddly enough I changed the oil and bumped the idle up a little bit. It is now at the mark under 1K. I rallyed it around for a bit and no oil light and no stalling. we will see how it goes when she drives it to work and school tomorrow

[russiankid]

These engines are picky, might want to change your plugs and wires. Maybe even the distributor.

[halxi]

ive stuck with castrol 10-30 in my car, my dads used it since the 1st oil change on it @ 2700miles in late 87, nothing but good work.

My oil light would flicker when i would corner sharp and it always just turned out to be a simple solution.

Overly dirty oil, and a low level.