How long does your oil light stay on?

[Safety Guy]

When starting Aqua after she sits for a few hours or more, her oil light stays on after the engine catches for maybe 1 to 1.5 seconds. During this I hear a bit of valvetrain clatter. Never more than that though. When warm the light goes out sooner and there is no valve noise.

Is this normal? I've had oil pickup issues in the past (pickup tube came loose and had to be redone on the car).

Or am I just sensitive to this potential problem? I'm hoping I'm just hypersensitive to this happening, especially on the road!

Karl

[ckiesman]

Mine did the same thing, about the same amount of time to. I changed my oil yesterday and now the light goes out as soon as the engine starts. When its below freezing however, it clatters for a good 3 seconds, but the oil light only stays on for a second or two.

[Bathtub Tom]

How old's your oil?
How old's your oil filter?
The outer ring of holes in your oil filter should have an internal 'flap' covering them (non-return valve) to discourage the filter from emptying when the car's not used. This means the filter's still full of oil at start up, thus reducing the time to build oil pressure. Perhaps you've got the wrong filter fitted or the valve's not working properly.

Either that, or your bearings are knackered.

[TorqueEffect]

Think the longest mine stayed on was like a second or two right after my last oil change.

But never stays on for more than half a second after the engine fires up, after that.

[ckiesman]

Ive also noticed that the longer it sits, the longer the clatter. My last festiva did that, but after changing out a few HLA's the problem was solved. I was told that as they get older, they leak the oil out. Not sure if thats your case though.

[bhazard]

What kinda filter?

[Safety Guy]

I just did an oil change a few days ago and used a cheap "Driveworks" oil filter because that was at hand. Could be it doesn't have that flap feature.

Next oil change I'll use a better filter! Maybe that's the issue here.

Karl

[Tex Law]

I make it a habit of never trying to save money by using cheap oil filters.

[TominMO]

I make it a habit of never trying to save money by using cheap oil filters.

+ 1000.