purplebunny

Ok, so here's what's going on..... Driving the car all day, no problems, until I stop for gas (which doesn't really have anything to do with the problem, just happens to be when it appeared). After I'm done, I get back in the car, start it up and the check engine light comes on, but the car seems to be running fine. Get back out, open the hood to see if anything obvious is wrong - check for leaks, hoses, belts wires, etc. and nothing seems out of the ordinary. Close it up and get back in CEL is out and everything seems fine. So I head for home. CEL pops on and off a few times, but there doesn't seem to be any performance problems. Get home and check things out a little better. That's when I noticed that the oil pressure is off. The car has always read correctly at right around 30 psi at idle and 60 cruising (2500+ rpm), just like it's supposed to. Now the pressure won't fall below 45 psi at idle, and the CEL comes on, sometimes. Bring the engine up to 3K and the light goes out as the pressure climbs to it's normal 60 psi. When I shut the car off, the oil pressure gague drops to around 35 or 40 and hangs there, then slowly falls to zero over the next 10 or 15 minutes as the car sits. The oil was about a quart low, and a little dark, but I'm just about due (not overdue) for an oil change anyway. So I added some oil and change the filter just to be sure, but no change. Running the codes on the car gives 11 and 30, which I don't see affecting the oil pressure (I fixed 11 a while back, but don't know if I ever cleared the code). There are no signs of extra smoke in the exhaust, no problems (yet) with driveability or starting, and nothing else obviously unusual. Anyone got a clue or ideas?
BTW, the car is a '91 N/A, 5 spd., 230K mi., pretty much stock, and very well maintained.