My oil light comes on when my car warms up and it goes off when i accellerate, why is that?

Question

Could it be because my idle air control switch is bad?

Answer 1

The First obvious thing to do is check the oil level. Depending where the oil pump pick-up is in the oil pan would explain the oil light going out when you accelerate.

When you start the engine, the oil pump pressurizes the engine and pushes oil up to the upper engine & heads, if the oil return ports are clogged or you just barely have enough oil for the pick-up to to reach, the oil that is in still in the upper engine & heads that has not returned to the pan makes the oil level too low to be picked up by the pump, the pump cavitates and the idiot light comes on, then when you accelerate, the oil that is left in the pan surges towards the pump pick-up and once again the oil pump is able to pump oil, pressuring the engine and then the oil pressure sending unit turns the idiot light out.

If the oil level a viscosity is correct, then you may have blocked oil ports not allowing the oil to return to the oil pan rapidly enough to prevent the pump from caveatting.

Answer 2

When the engine and oil are cold the pressure is higher. As they warm up the pressure will drop. The pressure will always be lowest, cold or warm, at idle. As you rev the engine the oil pump turns faster, moving more oil and increasing the pressure. However the light shouldn't be on at idle. The light is commonly called an idiot light, because the manufacturers believed that most drivers were incapable of looking at a gauge and telling when the reading was too low. They replaced the gauge with a light which only comes on when the oil pressure is so low the engine is in danger of being ruined. You really need to have a mechanic put a gauge on it and see what the pressure is and if it's low find out why and fix it.

Answer 3

OIL thins out as it warms up- increasing the RPM increases the oil pressure - IF the oil weight is to multi in warm weather that will happen if U have many miles on it - OR the Oil sending unit could b on the way out.