Oil pressure warning light!

[mjf65]

The oil pressure light appears to be stopping on when the bike is ticking over, when you open the revs up it goes out. The oil level is correct and I changed it about 1000 miles ago fitted a genuine Suzuki filter. Bike has done 24500 miles and uses a little bit of oil, about 250ml per 1000 miles. Any ideas:( ?

[yorkie_chris]

What bike? Has it been used hard?

Older/thinner oil will show less pressure, but shouldn't be low enough to put the light on, If it were mine I'd make up a gauge and see what the oil pressure actually is.

Chris

[northwind]

Well, I'm not really good enough at this to make suggestions, but I'd definately take it seriously... It'd make sense that with a loss of pressure it may only occur at lower revs to me, since the oil pump is driven by the engine it'll produce higher pressure at higher revs presumably. But, past that, you need an actual mechanic I'm afraid. If it was mine, I'd park it til I got some answers.

[yorkie_chris]

Thinking about it, 25k doesn't sound enough for serious engine wear, stuck bypass valve maybe?

Definately don't ride it, low oil pressure wrecks bearings.

[Sid Squid]

A test gauge would obviously give you an accurate picture of oil pressure and whether there actually is a problem or just an innacurate warning system.
If the pressure relief valve, (bypass valve), was duffed the light would probably never go out, so whilst a possibility I'd not go there at first.
If a gauge is not easily available and before doing anything more invasive I'd change the oil and discount that, then see if I could borrow an oil pressure switch off someone elses SV and fit that to see if the problem goes away, (easy to do; would only take 20 mins to swap over test and refit).

[mjf65]

Thanks

I have cleaned up the connector on the pressure switch which lives under a rubber boot, it was full of water so I'm hoping thats what the cause of the problem. Oil is clean and level is up to the higher region so I'm going out on it now to check it out. Fingers crossed:confused:

[yorkie_chris]

Wherabouts are you, if close it would be no trouble to swap switches.

Chris

[embee]

Switches can definitely go AWOL, I've had it happen. If oil and filter are recent the switch would be my first suspect.

[mjf65]

Thanks folks, all seems well now. I wasn't worried about the motor as all sounds well it has been serviced right through its history. I know pressure switches play up, a mates R1 did exactly the same thing he replaced it and the problem went away.

Thanks for all your help.