Oil pressure issue, 03 Vibe.

[biggman100]

I will try to make this as short as I can. I rebuilt the engine in my Vibe 1800 miles ago, but, due to someone who didn't know a lot helping me, I had to pull the head back off, and replace valve seals. While doing that, I also pulled the oil pump, and pick up tube, and replaced the gasket on the pump, and cleaned the pickup tube, as preventative maintenance, due to blowing up the original engine from loss of oil pressure. Now, after doing all that, I am having an issue with oil pressure, that I never had before. Could replacing the pump gasket have disturbed it enough to cause a sudden pressure loss? What it will do is, after I drive it a bit, the light will flicker from time to time, above certain speeds, but, below certain speeds, the light comes on solid, however, if it sits awhile and cools down, for at least 2 hours, the light stays off for quite awhile, until I put at least 15 miles on it. Any ideas on what to look for?

[lannvouivre]

I would take the pump and pickup tube off and reinstall them, as well as inspect the oil pressure sensor's wires. You may have crap sticking to the pickup strainer or something, but I recommend you just check everything and see if you can see any signs of what the problem is, starting with the pickup tube is just because that's the easiest part. If you don't find the problem there, then you'll have to pull the pump off and see if maybe it didn't seat on the gasket right or something.

Sorry to hear you had to pull the head and then have this happen, I know that's no fun.