Oil light offroading?

Last night I was offroading on some pretty steep up and down hill terrain for about 10 minutes in 4Lo creeping gear. When I leveled out I noticed the Oil Light was on. I stopped on level ground, cut the engine, opened the hood and checked the oil. Dipstick said full. Started the engine and the light was off. Has anyone seen this happen? Did the steep hills cause the oil to flow to one end of engine triggering the low oil light? Does the light, once triggered, stay on until the engine is shut down and restarted?

I havent evern seen that at all, that oil light is not the oil level that is the oil pressure. You may want to get that checked out at the dealer with a mechanical oil pressure guage

I haven't had the light come on, but if you sit on steep angles long enough the top end of the engine will starve for oil a bit when the oil moves away from the pickup in the sump.

The pickup is at the rear of the sump, you'd have a hard time starving it in a nose-up situation. The auto tranny on the other hand, I recall Ian mentioning a few have had it hiccup at steep angles, though I've never experienced it.

I was going both up and down hill. The light came on after going down a very steep hill very slowly. Also, about five minutes before the downhill incline I had gone through some very deep water up to the doors. The oil light was kind of dim. Could it have just been water on the wires to the oil pressure sensor?

Doubt it was water-related. Going downhill could well starve the oil pickup, and considering that's when it happened, I'd say that was what was going on.

That is the problem. I had the same thing happen after I went thru bumper high water. As it dried out, the oil light got dimmer and dimmer. Another retarded Nissan design.

I've had the auto tranny hiccup on a long steep incline. Just about ceases forward momentum and is not a good feeling. Fortunately, I do most of my wheeling in my manual transmission Frontier.

been through plenty of deep water with others in our group, nobody has ever mentioned the oil light coming on and we've had it up to the hoods for extended periods of time. i would go for the decline position of a hill,,,,,,how long since you last changed you're oil?

I change my oil regularly per the maintenance schedule. The oil level is fine. I'm gonna get under there this weekend to see if water can get to the oil pressure sensor wires shorting them out and turning the light on after going through deep water.

I've seen that happen lots when off-roading in several different vehicles. I wouldn't worry about it at all, its just from the steep hills. The worst was in my Cummins Ram which had a crackcase vent (draft tube) at the front of the head. It would literally dump oil into the fan on a steep downhill (and thus splatter all over the engine compartment). On one particularly nasty offroading trip, I had to put 1.5 gallons back in it afterwards. Luckily, Nissans (and Jeeps) don't have a similarly stupid design.

Not to revive an old thread, but I have had the same problem with my oil light coming on. So, in case anyone else is searching for similar information, I'm adding a post for that reason.

My oil light has come on, exactly as described above, on 2 different occasions. Both times, there was deep water involved, and the light came on at first, and then slowly dimmed and went out.

The first time it happened to me, I was wheeling though water up past the sills.

The other time was driving in the rain, through an empty parking lot late at night. I came across a rather large puddle, and decided to go storming through it. My second drive through produced the oil light coming on again.

In both instances, I stopped immediately to check the oil, and both times, the oil levels were fine.

My assumption is that water is getting into one of the sensors, as was mentioned above as well.

Anyways, all that just to say that it doesn't concern me as much as it did the FIRST time that it happened, and that it seems to be normal.

If you can call something like that "normal".

Regardless of how and why it happens, when the light come on, you should always get out and at least check that nothing is leaking, and that your oil levels are ok.

Mine comes on if I go through certain carwashes, I can actully see the foam coming out behind my glove box. It starts off bright and then slowly dims. I have brought it in numerous times and they couldn't duplicate it. Obviously water can get in somewhere, and I am sure driving through deep water doesn't help.

I've had the carwash problem as well with the oil light. It also hosed up the cruise control at the same time. Both were just temp problems though. Once it dried it was fine. Little scary though

Mine did it off road once. Drove to a flat area shut off the engine for a few minutes let it cool down started up and nothing. Started back up a hill and comes on again. Did the same procedure and hasnt done it since. I call them electrical gremlins...my ford had lots of those!!!!

Tim

It hasn't happenned to me yet but from reading this I would check the connection for the oil light which on my 2000 is right behind the oil filter and near the alternator. I suspect there could be a build up of crud which when wet starts shorting to ground.

It happened to one of the X's at X-Fest this year. It was after and very muddy and wet trail. It came on after we hit the highway. We checked the oil level back at camp. On the way home the next day it slowly went out.

Yup, me too when i sunk the X. Just a wet sensor... it will dry out.

Had the exact same problem happen in a Frontier that was wheeling with us. He turned it off, we checked the oil, and restarted it. The light stayed on for about 10 miles then turned off. Its just the oil moving away from the pick up. A baffled pan can alleviate this problem.

10 miles with the oil moved away from the pick up? I don't think so. The motor would be toast in 2 minutes.
Like I said earlier, with the symptoms we've been given the cause is a wet and dirty oil pressure sensor connection. A cleanup and some silicone grease will prevent it re-accuring(spelling? Where's the spell check?)

Same thing happened to me over the weekend after some pretty steep and muddy trails. Turned off the X, checked the oil (no problems). After lunch, I started it up and no oil light.

No you dumbass, the light stayed on for about 10 miles, probably because of the sensor being wet, but it came on initially on a very steep decent...therefore the oil moved away from the pickup.

After wheeling my X through some deep water and mud I noticed my oil light coming on and It made me nervous the first time and I did what most of you had done which was cut the engine and check the oil and it was fine. So I continued on down the trail. The light has come on several times since then and I wasn't sure what was going on and found this thread. This made me feel a lot better. Thank you everyone