Low oil pressure ...

[PeteGLH]

Hey everybody, I'm in some sort of bind here.

Car has 270k km (150-160k mi). Well kept car, runs great, doesn't "take" any oil at all, 1 bad lifter clicking away, but nothing to serious. Compression is a little low... but nothing alarming. Engine is running synthetic oil.

Recently, my oil light has started to flicker on and off on idle. It starts to light up once the engine is well warmed up (ex. after my 25min commute to work...)

Fact is, I'm going to hook up a mechanical gauge to see exactly what the reading is on the oil pressure, but if it were found to be low, would there be any down sides, or ill effects in switching back to mineral oil?

Correct me if I am wrong here but the mineral oil being a little thicker, I do believe it could help me raise oil pressure and keep my engine alive a little while longer... (however I might be wrong here....)

I'd like some advice on this one, I've heard not to switch from mineral to synthetic on an old engine, is it the same situation for the opposite?

Thanks for your input... oh BTW, Oil pump was changed last automn for a 1998 WRX unit... so I'd doubt that to be the problem.

[THAWA]

Hmm, isn't the oil pressure light set to go on when the pressure drops below 2 psi or something? It's something real low, too low. For what it's worth my old turbo engine was doing the same thing, but it was making a lot of noise. Light would flicker when warmed up, all my lifters were toast though.

[Legacy777]

Yeah the oil light doesn't come on until pressure is less then 2 psi or so. I read the actual number the other weekend.

[greg donovan]

when my oil pressure sending unit on my loyale went bad the pressure gauge jumped all over the place and then...

...nothing. the gauge flatlined but the car was fine and no noisey lifters.

[PeteGLH]

Well I'll keep you guys posted, I am planning on hooking a oil gauge up on friday.

I hope everything is allright....

As to switching over to mineral, anybody see any down sides? Would it help my problem?