97 Lumina oil light on

[E10ff]

3.1 with 195k. Always a good runner. I was going down the road, stopped at a light and it stalled. After a few minutes of trying to restart it started and oil light was on, lifters were clattering, engine was running rough (like flooded) so I shut it down.

[gw84]

obvious thing to check would be the oil level!! level gets low, light comes on and lifters begin to chatter....make sure she's not runnin low on oil or it may be bad news ahead!

[jeffcoslacker]

Oil pump may have siezed or it may have suddenly inhaled a big wad of sludge that broke loose into the pickup screen....usually when they hog the screen suddenly, it happens coming to a stop or rounding a corner or a cloverleaf ramp...

Not exactly reccomended procedure, but I have saved a couple without major surgery easily when this has happened.

Go buy 5 qts of the cheapest oil you can get and 2 cheapo oil filters, and some kerosene. Remove the old filter and put a cheapo on, add a quart of kerosene to the oil already in the motor (overfill), let it sit about 20 minutes and start it up. It may sound like hell initially, but should improve and your oil light should go out after a minute or so if it's gonna work.

Let that oil go, refill with the cheap oil and put the second filter on. Drive it about 100 miles like this, then if it seems improved or normal again, do one more oil change withy good quality oil and filter. you'll want to change it again in about 1500 miles, then go back to a regular schedule...

Like I said, I've saved a few this way. Obviously if the oil pump or pump drive broke, it's not gonna change anything. I suspect it didn't or you would be talking about heavy hammering in addition to valve train noise...I offered this option to customers as the final option before giving up on a car that they were going to junk if it needed major repair...

If this is the case, give it a shot...if not, you need to first check the filter to make sure nothing odd happened in there, then pull the pan and start looking for the cause....