So two weeks ago I brought my neon in to the shop to have the Belt Tensioner and Water Pump replaced. Ever sense I've been running into issues.

1st thing that happened, about 3-4 days after getting it back, I got a 0340 and a 0550.

I unplugged the battery for a couple hours while I was at work, the
0340 came back 3-4 days later. the 0550 has yet to return.

2nd The past couple days the oil light has been coming on for 1-8 sec at a time randomly.

I use Mobil 1 high mileage full synthetic, and I am due for my 3,000
Mile oil change (I know you don't need every 3,000 with synthetic, but
I do it anyways) and my oil level is fine, right in the middle.

3rd The other night I was waiting in line at McDonald's and the oil light started to go off a little more frequently than it has been, then all of a sudden the dash lights turned off, and I saw my gauges drop to Zero all for a split second, then right back on again.

Any suggestions?

Any help is appreciated.

 

Answers in blue.

 

Thanks. I forgot to mention though that the oil light almost always goes off when I bring the car to a stop, and very rarely when I'm doing city driving 25-35 MPH.

 

The fact that the light goes off when oil pressure is the lowest (and the engine hasn't blown up from lack of oil while driving and the light is on), makes it seem like the sensor a bit more to me. Yeah?

 

Yea, same here. Normally I would have just replaced it as soon as I started getting trouble from it, but it just seems like odd timing with the work being done on the car and all. But hey, I have 127,000 miles on it, probably about time anyways.

 

My sensor only made it to 80K something before it went, assuming it was the original. I've hear of them being replaced sooner too. Dumb $10 pain in the butt thing.

 

So, Darth, having never torn into one of these motors, how is the oil pump on these driven. What is the psi the light is triggered at? The reason I ask, is it prone to wear around 200,000 miles like the 318's and 360's are? My older high mileage Dodge trucks (300,000+) usually idle around 3-5 psi, and when warm are only around 20 psi. The oil light on my Neon works-lights upon startup, but with the miles I have, it doesn't light, even with the extended idling mine does, sometimes 8-10 hours at a time.

 

AFAIK, the oil pump is driven by the timing belt. Never torn into one either, but I recall reading that. As for the PSI, Dodge says normal idle PSI is 4, so I'd guess 3 or less. That's ridiculous IMO, but that's what they say it is...

EDIT: Here's the range from the shop manual-
Extended idling shouldn't effect pressure. It's bad on the oil itself, but the pressure shouldn't be changing because of it. As for mileage, I've never heard that the oil pumps generally need to be changed at 200K, so I can't say.

 

Not saying that they need to be changed, just that in the older pushrod chryslers, it has been my experience that they do wear a lot more than the modern pumps seem to. When they were new, warm idle pressure was around 25 psi, and driving pressure was 50+ Now they idle between 3-4, and are at 20 when driving. I never realized that it was normal for an engine to have 2-4 psi oil pressure, and be consitered healthy. I belive min spec on the 360 is 6 psi.

 

I don't have any other car/engine that specs pressure as low as the Neon either.