The Camaro Club (UK)

The Low Oil light seems to come on when I start the car and keeps on for the whole trip. The Oil pressure looks fine per the dash board and there is plenty of Oil. I have just had the car serviced (2 days ago) and it stayed on again this morning coming to work until I restarted at the petrol station. It comes on more on the morning trips rather then evening trips. If I restart the car 90% of the time the light goes out. This started only a couple of weeks ago.

It's a 98 Z28 5.7Ltr LS1.

Any advice appreciated.

Hiya Howie, with these you have to reset the computer to tell it you've changed the oil. There are a number of ways depending on the motor etc you've got.

Try the key in the 'on' position and the car off, press the trip reset in for 10-12 seconds. The change oil will then flash. Then see if it's worked.


Alterantively, there's a reset button located near the in-car fuses on some models.
Key 'on' car off, press once, release, then press again for 10 seconds.

Some say that you should turn on the ignition, but not start the car & then stab the throttle to the floor a number of times inside a 5 second period & that should also reset things, but I dunno if that's a myth or not

Failing that, you have a sensor in your oil pan that goes off if oil is below it. It could be a sensor problem, hth cheers........Nige

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Too much power...not enough hands!!

Thanks for that. My garage mentioned the throttle to floor one and have also tried the trip reset (I will try the trip reset again as may not have held it long enough) but none turn it off. Driving for 20 minutes and then restarting the car seems the only one that works at present.

A bit confused though as to why it is intermittant, one trip on, another off, i think like you say it may be a sensor fault possibly. They should make a sensor to tell you when a sensor is faulty...hehehe

Thanks again

Howie (&Nige),

The "Low Oil" light is completely seperate to the "Change Oil" light which is the resetable one.

If the low oil light comes on its either the oil thats low or a faulty sensor. On the LS1 cars the owners manual says that oil level should be checked with the motor "warm" after a short run. From experience I can tell you that mine has only come on once and the oil level was in the hashed area on the dipstick when cold, but after a good clean of the dipstick and a trip round the block it was definitely slightly (but not worryingly) on the low side, so it may not look that low at first glance but a quart of fresh mobil 1 soon cured it.

If you've just had it serviced, did they use a measured 5.5 - 6 quarts including priming the filter and did they check the dipstick with the motor warm?

Do you park overnight on any sort of incline? Being intermittent could just be the fact its right on the edge of the sensor saying yes or no depending on how you've been parked, or if the oil has drained down from the top end etc etc I would guess.

Don't forget LS1's are known for using a bit of oil here and there. In the US I've heard reports of Camaro's using around a quart anywhere between every 1500 to 4000 miles even from new. Higher oil usage being in 6speeds from the extra stress apparently too.

PS sorry for no reply to your pm a couple of weeks back... been a bit on the busy side will catch up soon

Mighty

Thats really helpfull. The 1st time it came on was about 3 weeks ago to which the oil was low, at the bottom of the range, I then added some which turned the light out, the next day it came on again, I added some more. When checking the engine (at cold) it was at the top of hashed area. It came on again when I drove home that night, I pulled over after 300 yrds and checked again. I wanted to make sure that I wasn't running on no Oil. It was still full. Its been intermediate after that and it coincided with a service and they reported no signs of leakage and said all was ok. I haven't checked since.

I will run the car for a bit to warm up the engine and will check again. The car doesn't normally use much oil at all (especially compared to my much newer BMW diesel to which I was told it was normal). Just a slight top up every 4 months.

It looks like a dodgy guage I reckon if the above is fine. Next question will be can I replace it myself or is it a garage job?

Thanks for all your help

Howie

The sender for the oil level light is in the side of the deep part of the oil pan, I'm thinking drivers side but I haven't been out to the car to check, but there's only one sender there so you should find it.

Before changing the sender I'd see if you can trace the wiring back and try and do a bit of a continuity check on the section that runs from the sender up near the exhaust manifold if you can find it plugged into a multiplug further up. I know that on cars fitted with aftermarket headers this bit regularly suffers from heat damage and there's nothing to say yours hasn't succumbed to the same fate possibly if its got a bit closer than it should.

If not I guess its just a case of draining some oil and the unscrewing the sender from its thread in the oil pan, usual "gentle on the thread when screwing it back in" rules should apply!

Thank you very much for the advice. I checked yesterday with a warm engine and the oil level was perfectly on Max so leaves only the sensor. I will check as you mention.

Cheers and hope to see you at the Corvette show. Thanks again.