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[Webby the Bear]

Hi guys. Hope ur all well.

When omegas been run for a while and cars been running a while I get a flickering oil pressure light. I’ve bought a new switch as my first port of call. However if this isn’t the problem and it really is a pressure problem it looks like I’ll be checking the strainer. Do you know if I can get access with just the oil pan removed.

Also I haven’t been under the omega for a while as I’m not using it as my daily anymore… is the pan just a load of 10 mils? Or is it more complicated 🤦‍♂️

Cheers men 👍👍👍

[Webby the Bear]

Ps light only flickers at idle. Put any amount of revs on and it goes out. Did I dream it or do I remember the v6 getting clogged strainers? Anyway TIA 🥰

[Doctor Gollum]

How many miles?

Basically drop the small sump, and you can get at it easily enough

A couple of quick oil and filter changes should clear through and minor particles.

Also what oil are you using? Given the recent temps, 5w30 might be a little thing for a higher mileage lump.

[Migv6 le Frog Fan]

Yes access to the strainer is by removing the oil pan. Its right there in front of you once the pan is off. I found a piece of plastic stuck to mine that looked like packaging from some part or other. Christ knows how it got down there though.
The bolts are male torx, cant remember the size of the top of my head.

[STEMO]

Yes access to the strainer is by removing the oil pan. Its right there in front of you once the pan is off. I found a piece of plastic stuck to mine that looked like packaging from some part or other. Christ knows how it got down there though.
The bolts are male torx, cant remember the size of the top of my head.

You can't remember the size of the top of your head? How do you go about buying a hat?

[Raeturbo]

I use 10 /40 semi for older engines myself

[Andy H]

Bloody silly design of the strainer - it is like a ball with the mesh in the centre of the ball and a smallish hole in the bottom to let the oil in from the sump.
If anything does reach the mesh it stays there. Changing the oil will give you a sump foil of clean oil (and a false sense of security) but does nothing for the crap wedged in the strainer

[Webby the Bear]

Boys you’ve confirmed exactly what I thought and many thanks for the speedy response!

Cars on 136k miles. I’ve done regular oil changes and have always used 10/40 semi 😃

I’ll do an oil change and new pressure sensor and take it from there. I know exactly when the car will do it so it’ll be easy to test.

Thanks for info on pan removal. Though I’m now looking forward to trying to remove pan after 24 years of being baked on 🤣🤣🤣🤣

Thanks men, you really are the best!!!! 🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰

[ronnyd]

Yes access to the strainer is by removing the oil pan. Its right there in front of you once the pan is off. I found a piece of plastic stuck to mine that looked like packaging from some part or other. Christ knows how it got down there though.
The bolts are male torx, cant remember the size of the top of my head.

You can't remember the size of the top of your head? How do you go about buying a hat?

Not bad for an old fart. 

[Doctor Gollum]

Bloody silly design of the strainer - it is like a ball with the mesh in the centre of the ball and a smallish hole in the bottom to let the oil in from the sump.
If anything does reach the mesh it stays there. Changing the oil will give you a sump foil of clean oil (and a false sense of security) but does nothing for the crap wedged in the strainer

I perhaps may have been clearer. I meant to do both

As you say things like O rings and larger debris will just collect there and potentially cause a blockage, a couple of quick oil changes will help wash any sludge out of the corners.

[Nick W]

You're probably on the right track with the sender, as they are a common failure whatever they're fitted to. procedure for replacing it:


spray a couple of gallons of brake cleaner around the sender, sump to block joint and everything else nearby* that's caked in twenty years worth of oil leaks and road grime.


disconnect the wiring and start the car.


if the sender is really bad it will spurt enough oil to preserve a nice amount of the radiator core.


fit the new sender, and check it doesn't leak from the joint or, a it's probably an Intermotor** part, through the unit like the old one did.


spray some more cleaner into the wiring connector, and inspect how far up the wire the oil got. Fix that to your preferred level of good enough. The Omega ECU is a lot further away from the sender than a Corsa one. Corsa owners will tell you that lubricating the ECU isn't a good thing


You will have now discovered just how badly your front crank oil seal is leaking. This costs about the same as the sender, but is slightly more work to fix. Ignore it until you feel like doing a more involved timing belt replacement.

Connect your repaired wiring, and admire the oil pressure light that only illuminates when the engine isn't running.


* stop before you get to the roof, unless you bought a lot of cleaner


** Intermotor parts are utter shit. Never, ever, ever fit them inside a distributor.

[Webby the Bear]

Haha thanks nick. And yes… intermotor part 🤦‍♂️🤣

And yes I’ve often wondered about front seal. Mainly wondering how to bust that crank sprocket loose… I’m guessing my impact won’t touch it. On a manual I’d consider wedging something in the flywheel but I’m guessing flex plate not as tough as that 🤷‍♂️

[Nick W]

I made a bar that bolted to the crank pulley and wedged against the water pump. Then undid the crank bolt with a hernia inducing heave on my 750mm long breaker bar. Until I checked, I wasn't sure the shot like sound it made when it finally loosened was the bolt, my breaker, the fabricated bar, pulley, waterpump or me breaking. It's probably better to wedge against the chassis rail or ground, but I didn't have any material long enough to do that. One of the modern hi-torque £300 impact wrenches ought to be enough to do the job if you can borrow one, and won't be so hard on the sintered pulley.


Two more holes in the bar, one of them tapped, were then used to draw the pulley off the crank snout.


Like this:



they're the same bar but the blue one is to undo the bolt, and the red one to draw off the pulley

[TheBoy]

Darth Loo-knee had a rig he made that bolted to the crank, but rested on the chassis leg, which worked quite well.

I recall the fun and games one day with (if memory serves) DTM and Matchless, trying to do it with 2 big bars on a day I hadn't had my Weetabix

[cam.in.head]

its reccomended to use a new bolt anyway so you can just slice the head off the old one with a angle grinder w cutting disc