I have a 95 LS with 203k miles. The oil light flashes for about 5-10 sec when the car is started up, and then it goes out. I have owned/own a few 1990's subarus' and I have never seen the oil light flash. There's plenty of 5W-30 oil in it, of course.

 

Anyone know what it means. I can't believe that it takes over 5 sec for the oil pressure to build over 2 psi [which is what someone said the pressure switch is set at].

It can if your engine is tired.

 

Get yourself a cheap mechanical oil pressure gauge and see what is going on.

Does the engine make a knocking noise while the light is on?

 

I had an ej25 that did this. The oil light would be on for about 5 seconds, maybe more every morning. Even for a couple seconds after sitting half an hour.

It made a horrible racket, but shut up a bit after the light went out.

 

It was just tired, got worse and worse till I swapped the motor :/

Never tried re-sealing the pump or anything, with 245k miles it wasn't worth it fora 25d.

may need to reseal the back of the oil pump but, I had a car with a leaking oil sender once, and the cheap replacement I put in started lighting the light after a few weeks so - measuring the pressure would be good in case the sending unit is bad.

The senders can get faulty, it's mounted under the alternator and it threads into the top of the block.

 

More likely is that the phillips screws on the back of the oil pump have loosened up. If it's due for a timing belt/idler pulleys/water pump job it's easy to pull the oil pump off and fix it. Use loctite on the screws and run them back in. Some anerobic sealant on the block where the pump bolts to and a couple o-rings should do it.

OK, I know about the oil pump and the loosing screws. And i have replaced a pressure sensor on a different subaru.

 

But what about the flashing light? This is a regular repeated flash. Not an irregular flickering so it must be coming from the computer.

When does it do this regular flashing?

That's really odd. Does the engine make knocking sounds while the oil light is on?

 

The oil light has nothing to do with the computer, it goes right from the sender to the gauge.

I'd definitely plug a manual gauge in to check it's running proper oil pressure.

OK, I know about the oil pump and the loosing screws. And i have replaced a pressure sensor on a different subaru.

 

But what about the flashing light? This is a regular repeated flash. Not an irregular flickering so it must be coming from the computer.

 

????????

 

But what about the flashing light? This is a regular repeated flash. Not an irregular flickering so it must be coming from the computer.

 

Are you sure it's the oil light and not the a/t trans oil temp light?

^^^ I like that idea!

 

Is your flashing light yellow, and flashes 16 times when you first start the car?

pluged oil fillter ditch the 5-30

You are probably seeing the AT oil temp light flashing.

 

That means there are stored codes in the TCU.

 

GD