Oil Light Staying On, Need Urgent Help!

October 6, 2008

hi there, my car has recently had its head gasket replaced. Went to fire the car up and it started fine, but I noticed that the oil light did not go out. So i have low oil pressure, but I dont know why, but I have a few ideas.

Bits of metal/debris/muck could have fallen down the oil galleys, but before I started the car, I flushed out the whole oil system with fresh oil and then filled with more fresh oil.

After I re-filled it with oil, I noticed that on the dipstick the oil level was about 2 cm above the Full marking, so it was obviously way overfilled. What I think has happened is the crankshaft churned and aerated the oil making the pump unable to pump oil.

I cannot think of anything else apart from a faulty pressure sender, but it was working fine before the head gasket job.

If anyone has any help, that would be greatly appreciated as I don't want to drive it until that problem is fixed.

October 6, 2008

Update: I decided to start it and remove the oil cap. Instead of seeing oil flowing around, there was just lots of pulses of air coming out of the oil filler cap. So the only conclusion I can come to is that the oil pump is being starved of oil and is pumping air, which I find very strange after having checked the oil level at the full mark. Any suggestions?