2010 Ranger XL 2WD, SOHC, 215K

My idiot light comes on occasionally when I brake at redlight after traveling at 50-60 for a few minutes, and then turns right off. Engine seems a bit nosier than normal, but the oil is new and full. I don't have a dial (thanks Ford), just the indicator light, so can't tell if the needle is jumping. Haven't had a chance to put a pressure tester on it yet, but I just want to hear if y'all have any preliminary thoughts.

Another issue that hopefully isn't related is that the truck will occasionally cut out in a sharp, slow turn, like pulling off a road into a parking lot. Power steering pump is new, but there's a pretty good RPM drop in a sharp turn that does the trick at idle. Starts immediately back up without even sounding fuel-starved.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

Bad ground?

 

I had the oil light flicker after towing or driving a high speed for a long period. It would only do it at idle. All I had to do was bump up the rpm a little and the light would not flicker until I let the rpm drop to idle again. I had over 200K miles on it when this started happening. It would not do it if I was travelling at 60 without towing for even a long time, and then come to a stop. I started using a little higher viscosity oil for a while to solve the issue.

However, I think you may have an electrical issue, be it a short, bad connection, or bad grounding. If your rpm is up, you should have plenty of oil pressure. Mine did it because I use an auxiliary bypass micron oil filter and it uses up about 15% of the oil flow. This along with slightly worn bearings and oil pump results in slightly lower oil pressure, especially at idle. I eventually installed a higher flow oil pump, and the problem went away. I doubt if a new pump would help you. Fixing electrical should be easier to do if you can find where the problem is.

I would start with checking the connector to the oil sending unit. My 89 Ranger had a loose connector there and the gauge would strange things intermittently.