Oil pressure light

Hi there!


New owner of a 2009 Interceptor (already have a 1986 RC24), I need your help about a weird problem I got yesterday.

Since I'm living in Quebec, Canada, I didn't ride the bike much so I can't say if it's a new or an old problem.


Took the bike for a ride and maybe 20 minutes into the ride, the oil pressure light became to flicker. It started with a fast and spaced flickering and gradually came to a solid light within 2 minutes or so.

I immediately stopped teh bike on the side of the road.

I looked for some oil leaks; nothing.

I verified the oil level; OK

I waited 5-6 minutes, started the bike and I was good for another 10 minutes before the whole circus started again.

Rinse, repeat.

Did this 4 times before coming home.


What's your take on this? If it was electrical, the light wouldn't come ON gradually like this, right?

A dying oil pump?

A dying oil pressure switch?

????


Thanks for any advices you could give, I'm lost.

 

Could be anything but I'd definitely get a gauge on it. How many miles

 

The first thing I'd do, since the bike is new to you, is immediately change the oil and filter.
Who know what the PO used for oil and if he changed the filter. Then I would check the
continuity on the oil pressure sending unit, and make sure you don't have an intermittent
problem.

But I'd get that oil and filter changed before I rode the bike again.

 

Anytime oil pressure is comes into question you have to put a gauge on it just to be sure, but I would also grab a filter to.

 

Yeah, the pressure definitely needs checked, but how many people have the proper gauge
to measure their oil pressure as opposed to those who have fresh oil and oil filter around.
And if the pressure is low you'll need to change the oil and filter anyway, just to make sure
that isn't the problem. Kind of taking the steps out of order a bit.

 

I would want to know what the pressure was before and after the filter change. If the filter was plugged I would certainly want to know it and if it was I would have to cut it open and find oot why.

 

PO never mentioned the bike's mileage, useful info for diagnostic guessing. probably not a bad sender.

TC, wouldn't the bypass (pressure relief) valve flow enough to keep a blocked filter still flowing enough not to kill the pressure ?

 

I don't know that all filters have a pressure relief bypass, but most of them do. Some off brands
may not. I'm sure that OEM filters will have the bypass.

 

I've never seen a filter cause the low oil pressure light to come on on a Honda bike. The fact that it comes on once warm says more to me than blocked filter..

 

like maybe you have fuel-diluted oil or worn engine bearings or worn oil pump or bad oil.

 

I have seen one first gen that was run up between 25-30k on and oil change and the filter had gone bad and was causing the oil light to flicker and then come on as it warmed.

 

Sorry guys, been out for few days.

So...

The bike's a 2009 with around 21 000 miles.

The oil change is recent, the oil level is ok, the oil is gold colored (not burned), the filter isn't crushed or something.

What bugs me out is the progressive behavior of the said oil light.

It starts to flash after maybe 30 minutes of riding. Really fast and spaced flashing. Then the intervals become tighter and within 5-8 minutes, the light comes to a solid red.

I stop the bike for 5 minutes, the coolant temp doesn't even drop, and I'm good for maybe 15 minutes before it starts again.

And again

And again

 

Okay, so now you absolutely have to check the oil pressure. And from the sounds of things you need to check it
when the engine is cold, and when it is fully warmed up too. It should be pretty easy to check out the problem
since it seems to be easy to reproduce.

Now you're got it narrowed down to the oil filter pressure switch, oil pump, oil pump relief valve, or something
really weird. It really sounds like an oil pump problem, sad to say. I wouldn't ride it much until you've solved the
problem. I'm not sure what pressure the light comes on but it's usually pretty darned low.

 

A proper pressure gauge to point me toward?

 

You might be able to borrow one from O'Reilly's. I usually have a couple of generic pressure gauges around and
I just grab whatever one is handy. I would think a 0-75 psi should do the trick. You want to see if the pressure
drops when the oil/bike warm up. I don't know what the pressure should be but seeing what you've got when you
first start up will be enlightening. I'd be concerned if I saw 40 psi at start up.

 

Pretty sure you will need a gauge or adapter that is BSPT, British Standard Pipe Thread. Would not sweat the quality so much as even a mediocre gauge will tell you what you need to know.

 

https://www.amazon.ca/8milelake-Eng...1525834460&sr=8-8&keywords=oil+pressure+gauge

 

That should do the trick. Actual oil pressure will take 30 minutes or more to achieve at full temp.

 

i've been trying to nail down that spec for years !!!! Thanks, great to know. former heavy equipment guys like TC know stuff motorcycle guys hope they never have to deal with.

 

1/8" BSPT I guess?

How hard is the oil pressure switch thingy to reach at? Does anybody have a shop manual to share? I usually have the shop manual for all my bikes but this Interceptor is pretty new to me so I did nothing to it but gas in the tank.