Oil light flickers at idle

[Jess87]

I have a Pontiac Grand Am 2003 GT 6 cylinder with over 200,000 miles. No offense to those who love this car but in the past 8 years, I have put about 15 grand into this junky car and bought it 2 years old for only 12 grand which was 8 years ago. I have never been so frustrated in my life. The only good thing I can say after all this time is that I probably know how to rebuild my motor and I am a female who knew nothing about cars. Watching my fiance the past 4 years replace and fix every internal issue which seems to mainly be the rockers and bolts have taught me a lot on just how the motor runs. But I must say, this car is a faulty design 100%. Sorry for the rant, my question is what could cause my oil pressure light to blink at me when I'm at an idle? It doesn't do it if I'm pushing the gas petal. Only when I'm at idle. I also have had my service engine light on for about 8 months. It keeps showing a misfire issue. I have replaced just about everything minus my O2 sensors. I am now hearing a sound in my tailpipes with a very light appearing smokey look. No it's not white smoke. Can't really tell the color. I also think that my rocker is coming loose again. I hear a "VERY" light clacking noise. I also have a VERY ROUGH idle. Car shakes vigorously when at idle. A friend of mine rode with me the other day and asked me if my car was a muscle car due to the shaking. I had to explain to her the background of my motor issues. Was a bit embarrassing. So, as you can tell I'm having a TON of issues "again" and I am tired of spending money left and right on this darn thing. If I wanted to trade it in or sell it, I would need to get it up and running good enough. Any suggestions on how to fix each and every problem? Or at least insight on how to detect what the issues are? Would really appreciate it.

 

[melsg5]

The light will blink if you have a faulty oil pressure sensor or low oil pressure. To verify which attach a mechanical gauge to where the oil pressure sensor is located. If you have low oil pressure it can be caused by a worn out oil pump or worn bearings which at 200k wouldnt be surprising. Your other post with the miss fire on #2 points to the link below.

http://www.obd-codes.com/p0302

 

[Jess87]

Yes, my fiance did a oil pressure test and just let me know that it is a pressure issue. His words were - The oil light is being caused by the car idling too low. The low idle is being caused by the miss in cylinder 2. The miss in cylinder 2 is being caused by a bad valve or bad piston ring on cylinder 2. Most likely it's a bad valve meaning the heads need to be fixed and if it's a bad ring that means motor needs to be rebuilt. That is what he just stated. I just had my heads done rockers and re threaded the bolts just over a year ago. That was probably the 5-6th time in the past 4-5 years. it's an ongoing issue that I can't stay clear of. I feel helpless and not sure what else I can do.

 

[melsg5]

have you considered doing nothing and donating the car to a charity and using the donation as a tax write off?

______________________________

 

[Jess87]

Unable to do that at the moment. My fiance was laid off about a month ago and finances are in jeopardy. While on the hunt for a new job he is currently trying to fix his car since he"s having issues with it as well. (having bad luck as you can tell) We are still in the process of reestablishing our credit so getting a brand new car is almost out of the question. If I had other choices of purchasing a car I could afford at least until my fiance finds a new job then that would be great. I thought about drive time but heard they rip people off. I'm scared of a high interest rate until my fiance finds a job. And I really don't want to fix it since we've put a lot of money into the same issues over and over again. Just wish there was a "quick" fix for now.

 

[melsg5]

Switch to 10W40 oil to increase pressure and throw in a bottle of STP. Did your fiance do a compression test to determine #2 has a valve or ring issue?

 

[richardgriese]

engine sounds like it's dying! You can always get a junkyard engine; it may be a little softer on your wallet then getting a new or used car. Depends on how mechanically savy you are.