Low oil causing CEL? input please

[neeland]

Alright my 98 n/t gs has been leaking oil since i got it. Its about a qaurt every 600 miles at this point. I believe its the valve cover gasket but its leaking down the back of the engine so its pretty hard to tell. I will be picking up a gasket next weekend and trying to see if it fixes the problem. But when my car gets low on oil...atleast a quart my CEL comes on...it throws a code for the O2 sensor in bank 1....if i put oil in the car it goes off...I let me brother drive it for almost a month and it was 2 qts low and it never showed the oil light...But the CEL comes on almost instantly at a qt low....I know this sounds strange but i was wondering what it could be about the oil being low that would affect that O2 sensor....any input here would be appreciated...also if theres a seal on the back side of the block that could be leaking oil like this that i am not thinking of id love to know...you cant see the leak from on top and all i can see on the bottom is the oil dripping down the back of the block and on to the tranny...

Tyler

 

[colonel_odem]

are you burning oil? - just trying to figure out why your O2 would show up...you could check the O2 sensor and see if it is getting gunk buildup.

 

[neeland]

no im not burning oil that i know of. from ### i can tell, its leaking down the back right side of the block if you are looking at it under the hood. I mean its a decent leak like i said a quart every few hundred miles maybe more at this point. But i know im low on oil as soon as the CEL comes on...like last week it was on almost all week..got paid on friday filled her back up with oil and the CEL has been off since....

 

[Defiant]

There's no CEL related to oil level nor pressure. The CEL turns itself off after a given time. Adding oil has nothing to do with it.

 

[absolute_DSM]

Goto a parts store, borrow a OBDII scanner and read the code.

In the money youre putting into buying all that oil, you could have probably fixed the leak 10x over by now.

 

[neeland]

I have had the code read and it throws the code for the o2 sensor in bank 1. I am working on fixing the leak. I believe I have it narrowed down to the valve cover gasket. Im getting one tonite and putting it in sunday. I know there is nothing with low oil that would throw that code but i was just amazed at how it coincides(sp) perfectly and consistantly for a couple months now.