'96 Camry Oil Pressure Light

[WAGator]

So here's the deal, my dad has this '96 LE Camry with 76k miles. He hears about the possible oil sludge problem and decides to have the engine cleaned. About a month later, he decides to sell the car and offers it to me at a great price. I decided to buy the car but wanted the timing belt and water pump replaced prior to drivng the car 2,900 miles to get it home. So the work is done by the local Toyota dealer. Four days and ~75 miles later, I pick-up the car. The battery was poor condition, so I replaced it. By the way, the car is now using Mobile 1 synthetic oil, 15/50, I think. My dad later tells me that he noticed a little black smoke as I drove away. So on my journey home I check the oil level, it's in band but on the low end of the stick. I added about 2/3 of a quart. Now for the first 1,500 miles or so I did notice a pause/lack of power/flutter about 6 times usually when on cruise control but I think it also happened with cruise conrol off. Now I've driven the car for ~24 hour out of the last 28 hours at an average of 75 mph, not exceeding 85 mph. At ~1,400 miles I added added about 1.5 quarts of oil, the dip stick was dry. ~100 miles or less further the low oil pressure light comes on, the cruise control turns off and I pull off the highway and turn off the engine. The car would start but the low oil pressure light was still lit. Note the temperature guage still read just under half scale (good). After letting the car sit for ~1 hour the car could be started but the oil pressure light would come in a few minutes later, flickering at first then locking in. Had the car towed to a shop the next day, the car started up fine without a problem, mechanic said oil and coolant were fine, and suggested that the problem may be a failing pressure sensor. So I took the car out for a test drive, got up to 60 mph ~3/4 of a mile from the shop, and the engine kind of fluttered, lost power and the oil pressure light came on. I did think there was a little more "ticking" coming from the engine than I would expect, but I am new to this vehicle. Now the car is difficult to start and has no power and will stall. Towed the car back to the shop to troubleshoot.

ANY suggestions?

[Brian R.]

Might be whoever cleaned the engine, did it poorly and screwed it up. Measure the oil pressure. Doesn't sound like a bad sensor.

Put 10W30 or 5W30 in it. That's what is recommended.

Is your "Check Engine" light on?

[WAGator]

The oil pressure was erratic 5-25 psi, the synthetic Mobile 1 oil may have been 5W30 I'll have to check (car's in the shop) and the "Check Engine" light was never lit, except when the engine was not running and the ignition key was selected to "on".

The mechanic is checking for blockage at the oil pump.

Thanks.

[don24mac]

I might suggest removing the valve cover and looking up there, too. The sludging problem has sometimes caused the oil to not flow back down to the crankcase fast enough (due to clogging). It then appears that there's little or no oil in the crankcase until later when it slowly trickles back down. This will also cause the "low oil pressure" light to come on, especially at high speeds, because there really is no oil pressure if the oil can't get back to the crankcase fast enough.

If the cleaning only loosened some of the sludge and it wasn't fully removed, this can occur. It doesn't happen often, but it's just something that should probably be checked based on your description--Especially since it's occurred since the engine cleaning.

As a side note, does your Dad have all the maintenance records such as the oil change records, and engine cleaning records? If he does, you should get your hands on them. They might come in handy.

http://yotarepair.com/Sludge_Zone.html

Let us know what the mechanic finds.

[Brian R.]

I didn't think '96 Camrys had a problem with sludge.

[don24mac]

Originally Posted by Brian R.

I didn't think '96 Camrys had a problem with sludge.

I didn't either. But when I researched this problem a while back for information on my 2000, I found that there were some complaints with the 96 model. I know Toyota only states that '97 through '01 had this problem. And that was only on improperly maintained engines according to them. Doesn't hurt to check for it, though.