oil warning when excess throttle is given

so when im riding the bike and i get the rpms up my oil warning light flicks on. naturally i check the oil level and its right in the middle of the looking glass. I just changed the oil 2 months ago. Not sure what the problem is.

 

How do you check your oil? There are a few possibilities. The sensor is not working, or you are not checking the oil properly.

As the light only comes on under throttle it would seem unlikely it is the sensor (you would think it would fail independantly of the RPMs).

What is dependant on RPM's is the lubricating system...

 

The other issue is the viscosity. Are you using the right weight of oil for your environmental temperature? Too thin and you'll see the light.

 

i check the oil with the bike centered and/or on the centerstand. i use 15w40 oil.

 

How many miles ago was the last oil change?
Did you replace the filter?
Did you drain the middle oil ( 10 or 12 mm bolt head where the clutch switch is )

I guess the sensor *could* fail - it just seems a strange failure...

I have had the light come on after I slowed down from a long high speed run... but that was after the revs came down, not as I revved it up.

I'm a bit lost on this one - sorry.

 

last oil change was about 1000 miles. Replaced the filter as well. I drained the oil were the filter is.

Im not sure if the sensor failed, because it does come on and go off intermittedly. Lately it doesnt seem to matter if the rpms are up there. It will just come on for about 10 seconds and go off.

 

hrm - loose wires? Did you check where the sensor goes into the bottom of the engine?

sorry - lost... :-/ Maybe someone else has had a simular problem?

 

Wires sound likely. Have you tried to run some Seafoam or Marvel Mystery Oil in your case before an oil change? It can clean out gummy deposits that may be playing with your sensor. Just pour some in before the change (removing a requisite amount of oil beforehand) and warm the beast up (don't drive it like this). Drain and refill as normal. I would look for the wires Woot mentioned, you could have a pinch or a short somewheres.

 

Just out of curiousity - what is that sensor looking at? Level or pressure? If it is level - a high quick rev might speed up the oil pump enough to suck oil out of the pan quickly enough that level would drop momentarily.

If it is pressure, I have no idea, because the more oil pumped means more pressure.

 

I'm not sure - generally I thought it was preasure... but I can't swear to that.

 

The sensor only reads level. When accelerating hard the oil is pushed back from the sump and also much is picked up by the oil pump. This combination may lead to a lighting of the warning light. However I have only experienced this when my bike was just a little low on oil. IT should not happen if the oil is up to the correct level. I would raise the oil up to the first hole above the midlevel and see if that helps.

 

The sensor is a float type with a baffle cage to prevent spurious readings. Blue is right on the money, I'm gonna back him up. I had the same experience. I run my oil level at the top line to cover any leaks. One of these days I'm going to plumb my head for a pressure sensor just for snots and giggles. I'm curious as to what I'll observe.

 

Alright thanks for the help guys. I will try putting some more oil in tommorow. I just didnt want there to be a problem with the bike. The car died last week so this is the only means for transportation.

 

Been there ziggy, fortunately it was in San Diego when I was single and it was warm. No problems mate, you'll be alright.

 

well I finally found an article that talked about the warning light issue....
It's a technical bulletin from Yamaha

 

Wow! Didn't know that was out there. I was just going by experience. Mine and others from the XJ list. Also didn't know the XV's had the same oil level window.

 

The old viragos (xv) looked alot like the maxims - side by side there were few differences except of course the obvious V2 - I4 difference.



Same mag wheels... simular geometry... I think the frame was different as the motor hung from a center frame rail?

 

Nick, you leave me speechless again! How do you score these cool little tidbits so effortlessly? You are one outstanding addition to this forum, never leave us, please! Looks like you got your answer Ziggy.

 

Thanks Robert, took me a while to remember where I found the info so I could copy and paste here!

 

Shouldn't we have some sort of tech page available to sticky stuff like that? That page looks like gold to me. Where did you find that page anyway? Is there more information similar to that page there?

 

oustanding information nick. I keep my oil level at the center where it says oil warning light may flicker. Thanks for the help.

 

The article I posted was from Yamaha Parts -

http://www.yamaha-motor.com/sport/parts/home.aspx

That particular one was the first Technical Bulletin for the 1982 XJ750RJ, this model has only two bulletins posted. Other models have up to eight bulletins posted on a variety of topics.