Ok so I've had the oil light come on a couple times since I've bought the car. Pulled over filled the oil light went away. My question is this the oil pressure gage shows two ticks above half way on the pressure when the light comes on. Now on most piston engines if your oil light comes on your engine is well pretty damaged just short of seizing now is this true for our RX8s or is the oil light sensor more sensitive and save the engine before its to late?

 

oil pressure gauge is a 'dummy gauge'. it does not register anything. It basically goes to the exact same spot as soon as the car starts and STAYS there regardless of what the car is doing.

If you want real oil PSI, you'll need aftermarket gauges.

if the oil light comes on in our car, you are VERY low and should top off immediately or you could run into issues.
you should check your oil more often.

 

the oil temp gauge in our 8's is a dummy gauge just make sure u have enough oil n u should b ok

 

mazda recommends you check oil once every two fill ups ofcourse this varies on how hard you push your car

 

jedi u beat me to it !!! well it was at the same time

 

Ya well I how long should I wait after filling it up to check the stick I noticed that it takes some time to get a accurate reading since lately I thought I was good and obviously I wasn't.

 

As far as I know; when your oil lamp comes on you are at least 2 quarts low. you sould be using about one quart every 1000-1500 miles depending on how hard you are driving and where you like to keep your RPMs,, those are good times to check your engine. you should also be able to get an idea of how much oil you need by how low on the stick your level is. so there should be no reason to check the level after you've fill it. however, five minutes should be ample time to get an acurate reading

 

yeah, i'm not sure why you're relying on your guage to tell you that you're low. you should definitely know that by checking it before filling and knowing how much you need to fill.

 

Just run it till the light comes on.

That's what my dad did with his Ford Pinto, I'm sure you'll be OK.

S

(I'm no good at this sarcasm stuff, I must practice...)