This past week my wife and I took some fun runs on a local autocross course. After taking 6-7 pops at it between the 2 of us in quick succession, the oil light came on when we stopped and came to idle. We parked and shut it off. After an hour or so I checked the oil and it was right at the full line. Started it up, no warning light and pressure looked good on the gauge. Drove it around the pits a bit and all seemed happy.

The next day we went back and, thinking maybe the previous day was a fluke, basically repeated the whole scenario above. After cooling off a bit everything seemed normal again, and we drove home 1.5 hrs with no problems. She's since driven it to work and on various errands- reports no warning light and the pressure gauge reads normal.

What could be causing this? We've been out of autocross for ~10 years and are thinking of getting back into it, but obviously need to get this issue sorted out before we do.

Possibly relevant info:

• 2005 Mini Cooper (non-S), 125k miles, Sport Suspension Plus, 100% stock, shod with some old Bridgestone Star Specs
• The oil had been recently changed by a trusted mechanic, Castrol GTX 5-30 High Mileage Synthetic
• On the first day (before we ran) we noticed the idle was hunting in the 700-1000 rpm range. Idle smoothed up by the time we got to the course.
• After the first day's runs, the idle was rough and the car stalled at a stoplight one time. This behavior never repeated.

Thank you all for your insights.
Carl

 

It's not uncommon for oil pressure to be fairly low when hot. A lot of cars will idle with 10 psi or so after being on track or autox. But Autox you generally don't get the oil THAT hot cause the runs are 30-50 seconds then sitting for 5-10 mins. 125k miles it might be worth running a little thicker oil but start with pulling the oil filter out and making sure the filter is pressing the bypass spring at the bottom of the housing all the way down or that nothing is broken in there, that being broken will cause an oil light at idle. At the same time, if you've got a running issue thats causing a low idle that can cause an oil light as well. I would NOT go racing a car with oil light issues. Get to the bottom of it before you do any more.

 

I would say hot oil and a lot of sloshing around might be the cause. My Dad use to intentionally overfill the 944 we had before an autocross or trackday. Of course the car did burn a little too so...