Hi Martha,

The oil light can only come on for two possible reasons:

1. Your oil pressure switch is defective and is "lying" about how much oil pressure you have. In this case, replacing the oil pressure switch will fix your problem. (This needs to be checked FIRST)

2. You actually have low oil pressure. The main reasons for low oil pressure are worn out engine bearings (making it time for an engine replacement or overhaul) and debris getting stuck in the oil pick-up tube screen. I have fixed many of these by removing the oil pan and cleaning the debris out of the oil pan and oil pickup tube. Many times, sloppy repair work on various parts of the engine will result in pieces of gasket material and chunks of silicone that get trapped in the pick-up tube and cause the symptoms you are describing. The way to go about this is to remove the oil pan and inspect the contents to see what is going on. If there are a lot of metal particles, then the engine bearings are damaged. If there is just a lot of junk and debris (with no metal particles) like described above, simply cleaning it out will likely solve your problem.