zeroptzero

We took the car out for a short drive today, just before getting home the engine oil light came on idle. It goes out as soon as you get out of idle but comes right back on as you hit idle rpms. I think on our drive my nephew said it seemed like it dropped out of VTEC one time in upper rpms. There is also some increased engine resonance around 3500 rpms, you can detect some added roughness/engine resonance/vibration sounds that weren't there before.I can hear and feel more mechanical noise at the clutch engagement point, much louder than normal as you release the clutch and it is in the engagement zone. No CEL, oil light doesn't come on when driving. The oil level is completely full, just put in new oil and filter prior to the spring season.

At end of last year I saw some high lead levels in a used oil sample I had sent off , the car has run like mint up to this point. 2002 S2k with 60k miles. I think I've lost one or more rod bearings ? , not sure if any of the other bearings could be the culprit though . I might start by dumping the current oil and sending it off for analysis, if it has high lead or copper on such a short interval I'll know something has gone bad.

Any advice or info would be appreciated. Thanks for reading.

downloader

take the oil pressure. Just take the oil pressure at idle, you will know right away, instead of waiting on an oil analysis. If the pressure is low you know you have to make repairs before she blows up

T-Smac

yeah step one would be hooking up a mechanical gauge and checking the oil pressure that way.

SpitfireS

Is there any reason to think you, at any time, have starved bearings from oil?
If not then there is no bearing damage.

You could check the pressure and know the value at idle.
But this means running the engine to get to 80C - that is the temp oil pressure is spec'd in the manual.
I'll bet you it won't show low oil pressure warning at a cold idle - even after the rpm peak has settled.
You could dump the oil - cold, without starting and warm-up - and let it drain overnight, then check the bottom of the drain pan for sparkely bits.
If you do not find any, fill up with oil and then do the oil pressure check.
You could even reuse the oil as long as the drain pan was spotless to begin with - and nothing fell in during the drain.
If you do find parts in the oil you also have an answer.

Nephews that claim to notice the engine falling out of VTEC is... well.. just a nephew
You as driver would have noticed it too if this was the case.

"High" lead levels is in ppm, do not forget this.

I hope you just find a faulty sensor.

starchland

oil pump failure?

I would see what the service manual says about the workings of the oil light. Good luck.

zeroptzero

Thanks for the replies everyone. I thought of the oil pressure check but I'm afraid to keep running the engine too much more. The oil light doesn't come on at cold idle, so I've only seen it at hot idle. My 2002 has the upgraded oil jet bolts from the factory. I installed a Mugen oil pan over the winter months.

The only incident I know of is a visit to a road course last year and my oil analysis after that visit. Lead readings are normally 1 on this engine and they went to 15 ppms on the last sample, Iron was 33ppm when normally it is around 11 ppms. That track had some long high g sweeping curves which have been known to cause some oil starvation issues on some cars, and it has a very steep uphill section of the track accelerating hard and oil sloshing to the back of the pan I think. I posted up about my increased wear and a few replies said it was just increased wear and not to worry about it. I've probably put 500 miles on the car since last fall.

The engine is pretty quiet at either idle, no tapping or rod type noises. But there is some roughness as you rev the engine hot or cold around 3500 rpms - but very slight, just more mechanical noise is the best way to describe it - NVH, and at the clutch engagement point you can feel and hear extra mechanical noise and vibration through the pedal like a whirling noise as you get to the friction point with the clutch engaging.

I appreciate all of the replies and info from you guys, thanks very much. I'm going to dump the oil today. I'll need to search for an oil pressure reader setup.

starchland

cut open the filter too please. Um, can you check the crank pulley for play? maybe that may give you an idea.

any chance of it being a problem with the baffle?

zeroptzero

Thanks bud, I'll do that too, good idea, so I just try to move the crank pulley around by hand and see if it moves ? I cut the filter open last fall but it didn't have anything in it after my increased UOA wear incident.

starchland

Search the site, something about crank walk,and clutch related...if it has some play in it vertically...I think Billman has some posts on that. Im not sure if you would see 33 ppm in the filter?

Hopefully its something simple, like a blocked sump or something.

zeroptzero

I dumped the oil a few mins ago into a clear container, not too much out of the ordinary, I did see one flat piece of metal - very thin and sheet-like, maybe two milimetres by 2 milimetres, and a small number of metal specks but not many, maybe 3-4 and very small round shaped specks. Not much glitter in the oil. I did capture a sample to send off and have it analyzed.

I could only get one hand on the crank pulley due to tight access right now, and I couldn't budge it, perhaps it takes two hands to test it properly. I'd rather have bad rod bearings than crank main bearings, couldn't bad rod bearings induce some roughness in the powertrain ?.

The only other thing I can think of is a clogged oil filter, but it is a pretty much new Honda S2000 specific filter. I'd like to see the pick-up sceen on oil pump. I'd swap out the oil and filter and do an oil pressure check if it is safe to run the engine with the oil light on, but everything I've seen said not to run the engine if the oil pressure light is on ?