1997 Dodge Caraven Oil problem

JURYIEL

MEMBER
1997 DODGE CARAVAN

Hello,

I have a 97 Caravan with 110k miles on it. I don't drive often, but last week it worked fine without any warning light indicators. I parked it last week and tried to use it this week and there is a sudden problem. The car engine will try to start for a few seconds, then dies. After this, the oil pressure light comes on. The car has oil in it, so i'm not sure what the problem is. I also read if you drive your car with that light on it can cause engine damage. I haven't driven it, but I did try to start it up a bunch of times, could this have caused additional damage? Please let me know, and also if possible what do you think it would cost to fix whatever problem it has? Thanks.

4 Replies

MERLIN2021

MECHANIC
17,250 POSTS

With the key on and the engine not running it's normal for the oil light to be on. As for the starting problem. You need to test for spark and gas. If both are present you need to check compression!

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Saturday, March 31st, 2007 AT 10:13 PM

JURYIEL

MEMBER
3 POSTS

Is it normal for only THAT light to be on though and no others? Not even the dashboard came on. Only the warning lights lit up, and then turned off, and then the oil light came back on, but the other lights (like for example things that show if it's in park or in drive etc) did not light up. The radio did turn on and work though as did windows and locks.

Actually the problem seems to have fixed itself. I just tried to turn it on the next day and it worked. I did this about 7 times and it came on right away each time. I drove it around a bit and nothing seemed to be wrong. But I'm afraid that maybe what happened could lead to a bigger problem later.