tayhay8

Ok so i had a low oil light come up on my car, (just bought the thing) but i changed my oil and i know it's got lots in there.. light never went off. Now when i drive it, its got great oil pressure of course, but once it get up to temp (just changed thermostat and rad cap aswell) the engine light will come on and the temp will drop from the middle down to about 1/4 way up the gauge.. it stays there for most the way i'll drive it withing half an hour.

I'm new to these cars but i was almost thinking the car will purposely run cooler when that oil light is on, even thought i know i have 5 quarts of oil in there..

does anybody know what's up? It's my daily and i'm 18 and half *** savvy with the lt1's

ahritchie

iTrader: (1)

No it does not purposely run cooler with low oil lol....very odd. What temp is the gauge at? Could just be a bad oil level sensor and the SES light is an unrelated issue...get somebody to pull the codes and find out what's triggering the light.

tayhay8

well i'm thinking it's the sensor but, i don't know why it throws the ses light and runs cooler.. temp is at 140ish? just an estimate.. i have a 180 thermostat which i believe works great as it's brand new and does at first go up as usual until the ses light and it drops and stays around 140ish.

it's a 95, and god knows most people weren't nice to these cars, especially since i'm 4th owner.

DisasterFormula

iTrader: (1)

Certain SES Codes force the car to kick on the fans to avoid the engine overheating and causing permanent damage. Basically, what it's gonna come down to is you're gonna have to take it to a dealership to get the codes pulled. Usually they do it for free. Most autopart stores can't pull your codes b/c 95 F Bodies are the GM Mutants. OBD 2 connector w/ an OBD 1 computer, the 3.8L V6 being the exception.

ahritchie

iTrader: (1)

You really need somebody to scan the PCM bottom line....there's two coolant sensors; the REAL sensor on the waterpump that tells the PCM the engine coolant temp....the other coolant sensor is JUST for the gauge (yours could be bad). Scanning it will also tell why you have a check engine light.

Do the fans come on when the temp goes down? Maybe somebody fooled with your fan settings...these can be changed via PCM re-tune as well. I'm thinking you have some bad sensors more than likely.

tayhay8

only dealerships hey? i knew they had the messed up obd 1.5 mutant plug but hopefully i can find someone around.. somebody could have messed with the fans and they could be staying on.. it's a rumbly car so i don't hear them much.. lol. it is the lt1 if anyone is confused. i'll have to start calling around for a scan

ahritchie

iTrader: (1)

^I tend to agree with this prognosis.

tayhay8

booked in a scan on weds, i'm 90% sure i'll be replacing the low oil sensor, but the other characteristics are worrying. New to the whole sensors and computer thing. used to a carb

shbox

Save your money on a scan and buy your own scanner. Anyone who works on a modern car has to have one. You will save well over the price of a scanner in the long run.

The temp comes down, because the fans come on with most any trouble code that lights the SES.

tayhay8

well i drove it today and last night and the light never came on, ran perfect..

tayhay8

question, is there a certain one scanner i should look for? At work i saw we have scanners that work on both obd1 or obd2cars. It's got a "GM" connector included so would that not work? Or would it think it's obd 2 and mess everything up? like i said i don't know much about this computer crap

LT1FirebirdSLP

iTrader: (2)

You need an OBDI capable scanner. For your year, you may have the OBDII looking connector, but rest assured its still OBDI. 95 was an odd year. I would say give the GM connector a shot. Chances are its the 12 pin ALDL thats more of a rectangle than anything. And chances are you'll need the 16 pin ALDL thats more of a trapezoid/OBDII style. I can say for OBDI AFAIK youll need to also have the plug that goes into a cig lighter port and gives an extra 12vdc feed to the scanner. So if the plug requires the use of that too, then you will know you are headed in the right direction. I know it sounds confusing, but youll figure it out. Worse that can happen is it wont fit or it wont work. Just dont force anything and you will be AOK!

96capricemgr

iTrader: (1)

You said it has a new 180 stat. You know stock is 180 and the LT1 does not use a regular gen 1 stat.

Far as scanning it yourself look into TTS Datamaster and a cable from someone like AKMcables or pcmperformance. Datamaster is free to use for I think the first 20 scannings/recordings after that you wont know how you ever worked on a car without it and will gladly spend the money to unlock the program permanently.

If you really see yourself getting serious and were comfortable tuning carbs and such you could go ruight to Tunercat and get the cable, scanning software bundled right with Tunercat which is tuning software for your pcm. I want to say the whole package would be maybe $250 for cable, logging and tuning software.

tayhay8

I know, i grabbed a stat for my car, not just a regular gen 1 stat.

And today on the way to work it overheated. so i check it out and it seems like there was an air bubble. i open the bleeder valve to get a tonne of steam out and then i put 1L of coolant in and it was completely full again... after that little bit of fluid it had no problem getting to the shop who is now scanning it for me and taking a look... obviously my fan sensors are messed up cause they wont turn on until that engine light comes on every 4 or 5 days...

Just bought the thing and i've already been discouraged twice. grrrrrrr!
i'll keep you guys informed incase anyone has a similar problem.

DisasterFormula

iTrader: (1)

Just stick with it, man. It may take a bit of work but there's a bit of pride for keeping a 95 F-Body and keeping it run. As far as checking your fan operation, jump pins 5 and 6 on your OBD connector then turn the key to on, engine off. Fans should kick on. If not, check fuses and relays.