2016 Club Car Precedent oil light comes on and engine sputters
 

Cart has a Subaru EX40 EFI engine. The oil light comes on for a couple seconds then goes off at all rpm’s except for WOT. When the light comes on the engine sputters and tries to kill. Oil level is normal about half way between the marks on the dip stick. Any ideas what could be the problem?

Re: 2016 Club Car Precedent oil light comes on and engine sputters
 

ttt

Re: 2016 Club Car Precedent oil light comes on and engine sputters
 

I'm not sure how many folks here are familiar with the new subaru motors, probably your kack of response. I'm not familiar but maybe some suggestion of what to look up?

Since it is EFI I would imagine the oil light is tied to a pressure sending unit. If the light comes on, it may kill spark as a "safe mode" which would load it up with fuel and cause the backfire.

If the oil light is coming on, I would recommend hooking up an oil pressure gauge to check and see what the oil pressure is actually doing. It may just be a faulty sensor causing problems, or it may be a bigger issue.

If the oil light is just hooked to a level float like the older engines, maybe just unplug it and see what happens. But I doubt an EFI engine would have a float...

Re: 2016 Club Car Precedent oil light comes on and engine sputters
 

There's not a ton of info about these motors available to the general public yet.

The Subaru motor has a float type oil sensor, but I'm not sure it would cause this as I don't think the level sensor is connected to the EFI computer. It might be worth a shot to see if it changes anything, but it almost sounds like you may have a fuel pressure problem or a failing ignition coil. You might also try replacing the spark plug to see if it improves anything.

The Oil light is used as an error indicator and will Blink a diagnostic code if there is a fault.
Does it blink at a steady rate or just come on sort of randomly?

Re: 2016 Club Car Precedent oil light comes on and engine sputters
 

I wonder if the oil light flashing is a misfire, like in a car before it actually turns the MIL on?

Re: 2016 Club Car Precedent oil light comes on and engine sputters
 

I don't think it's smart enough to figure that out. From what I have gleaned from other posts the computer monitors the tach signal from the ignition coil, and if the signal from the coil is not clean it doesn't pulse the fuel injector. It may be setting a fault code for the coil temporarily if the coil is intermittently failing. The only way to really know that is with an O-scope on the coil primary wire. But an inline spark tester should show if the coil is weak and not producing enough spark.

Automotive ECUs use an entirely different technique for determining misfires based on crankshaft speed from reading the wave signal of the crankshaft position sensor. The wave form actually varies as the crank is turning because the crank speed is not consistent the entire way around. For each compression stroke the crank slows down, and for each power stroke the crank speeds up. The computer expects to see crank acceleration after the spark command for a given cylinder. When that acceleration doesn't happen for X number of times in a given time-frame (usually a few hundred ms) the computer will then set a fault for a misfire. It's not always accurate, but it's typically good enough, or at least it has been for the past 30 years or so of electronically controlled engines. New emissions laws might make this method obsolete in the future.

Another way they can do it is with Ion-gap sensing, which requires some expensive ignition system parts that you probably won't find on a lawnmower engine.
Saab used to use Ion-gap sensing on their turbo engines to detect spark knock and misfires and would use that info to adjust spark timing and fuel to prevent pre-ignition. This seems to be more common now in modern vehicles, especially luxury and high performance engines. but enough [/offtopic]

Re: 2016 Club Car Precedent oil light comes on and engine sputters
 

Lol @ offtopic

Understand very very well how cars work. Just have basically zero information on the newer efi golf cart computers or what sensors the motor may or may not be equipped with.

To OP... we can take educated guesses all say long. But without a proper service manual to follow and see how this motor works and etc. That's all it is, guesses. Unfortunately might have to go to a dealer on this one. I'd hate to see you chase your tail or damage something trying to diagnose it.

Re: 2016 Club Car Precedent oil light comes on and engine sputters
 

I ended up taking it to the shop where I bought it. I called them yesterday for an update and they said the problem was with the oil level sensor. From what I was told this engine has a low oil level shutdown so that was causing it to sputter when the light came on. I was told it is a 5 hour job to remove/replace the sensor because of the location. It should be ready today and I will get more info when I pick it up. Thanks for everyone's replies.

Re: 2016 Club Car Precedent oil light comes on and engine sputters
 

Good to hear! Glad you'll be back up and going soon!

Hey, it was a close guess anyway :) it would be a float inside the engine, so yeah not a quick job.

Re: 2016 Club Car Precedent oil light comes on and engine sputters
 

I have the service manual for this engine. Here is a picture that might help. I will be interested to see if the problem is fixed. A friend of mine has one of these that he never had the time to get running. He said on occasion it would quit but always start back up.
He drove it in the shop thinking because the oil light was blinking once in a while he would just change the oil. It has not fired since. I just wish he would have known about the oil light flashing a code and could have counted the flashes. That might have led him in the right area to find what had been causing it to quit on occasion. These carts are like the older 80's cars and trucks with OBD1 from what I learned.

Anyway they pushed it out of the way for now.

I checked on it two weeks ago and discovered that it would fire just as the engine stopped turning, only one time. My only interest other than trying to help them is learning more about these carts. They have great reviews with this fuel injected engine unless the break :(
CC only made these for a few years and Subaru pulled out of the small engine department I am told. Now they have Kohlers in them. These engines are night and day on power as compared to the Kawasaki from what I have found.

I guess I could help them test this oil sensor because the manual shows how. Just not sure that is the problem. Their fuel pump is working because it cycles when you first start the engine like a car with EFI.
I could upload the PDF manual here if I knew how. Maybe it could help someone in the future. Tom