Flickering Oil Light!!!!

[Burnside]

My 79 thunderbird's oil light flickers when the engine is idling. The oil is at the perfect level, the car doesn't smoke at all, it hasn't affected the car's driving/running at all that I can tell. My grandfather's 77 LTD has the same problem. He says its just a bad oil sending unit. Is he right? and how do i replace that, it doesn't look good to have a flickering oil light. It just flickers wheni come to a stop, and stop flickering as soon as I touch the gas or it's in park. It has done been doin this for about a year, hasn't hurt anything I guess LOL, I've just sorta ignored it, but It's annoying and makes it hard to sell. I don't know, help me out!

[ 07-23-2002: Message edited by: Burnside ]

[marine165]

burnside,

The oil pressure sending unit is located on the drivers side just forward of the oil filter. A replacement one is cheap, around $12 or so. Its easy to replace while you're changing the oil, with the filter off and the oil drained (not in that order, obviously... :eek: ). I woundn't hesitate to change it. If the light still flickers, check the wire that leads to it, all the way up to the dash. If if continues to flicker, ack! Get an external oil pressure gauge and pipe it into the port the oil pressure sender is threaded into and watch it while your engine is idling. If it is indeed low, make sure to get the car to a mechanic. Low oil pressue is no goodsky.
Good luck!

Mike