Oil Light Flickering???? :confused:
 

I've never seen this before on my Maxima. I had my regular shop change the oil and do other things such as check for a ghost coolant leak and fix suspension noise.

When I picked it up yesterday it was fine. I was driving it today and stopped in traffic on the freeway. I see my oil light flickering, not solid, but flickering whenever I was stopped at idle. When I got home the oil level was fine...at least from what I could tell after it had been running.

I took it to the shop and they drained a quart of oil. It seems to be ok now, but could too much oil cause the flickering?

Very odd since the shop had never had a problem with the oil change before on the Maxima...

I thought the oil light only comes on with low pressure? :confused:

Are you saying that your engine was over-filled?

If it was, then the danger is that the rotating pistons whipped the oil, making an oily foam that does not lubricate as well as solid/liquid oil. It is also possible that with the resulting foam, the oil pump had trouble generating the oil proper pressure.

At any rate, that's why you don't want to overfill, and that's why there is a MAX mark on your dipstick.

That's just my own explanation. I would watch the oil light and if it does not flicker any more I am pretty sure you are OK.

Yes overfilled. I didn't see much foam on the dipstick although there were a few bubbles. When I called the shop I asked if he remembered how much oil and he said 5 or 6 quarts!

I told him it only takes about 4.25 was with the filter! I think he just accidentally overfilled without double checking the manual.

I'll keep an eye on the light. I just found it to be acting odd!

Thank you!

I would stay away from that mechanic; or any other mechanic that does not check the dipstick after changing your oil. (no need for a manual!)

It's his first mishap...doesn't seem like a big deal since I caught it less than a day later. Just odd.

Might wanna check those spark plugs to be sure the oil don't go past the seals, what ever happened to ur tranny problem you had?

I'll pull a plug tonight to check, but I doubt there is any oil leaking by.

My tranny is fine. I replaced the solenoids and it was ok after that, been solid since. It took a couple weeks for it to adjust to the new solenoids.

The biggest issue I have with the car is the rear main seal leak. Don't want to drop $600 or $700 just to replace the seal. Everything works great on the car and all maintenance is up to date.

You were probably foaming the oil. You shouldn't see any bubbles on the stick.

The rear main seal is a b!tch. I did both of my cars this year. If you're keeping the car I'd get it done sooner than later though. The oil will eat away all the rubber mounts and bushings in your suspension. You'll spend a fair amount of money fixing that and still have the leak to deal with.

I think I read on here that flickering dash lights are a sign of the alternator starting to slowly fail so keep an eye on it.

Well, two days later and no issue after some of the oil was drained off. Conclusion = overfilled. Probably the extra oil led to foaming, which led to the oil pump sucking air, which led to the intermittent loss of oil pressure.

Doh! Now I wonder if my rear main seal leak may be due to overfilling in previous oil changes. Hmm...

No, It's just time for it on these cars.