John Pal...

Hi Guys & Gals,
I have a '97 1.8TQAS and the other day while driving home from work I had my oil light come on. Then it shut off. Then it came on. Then it shut off. That's it.

Ok, I figured the drop in pressure was due to a small leak coming from my valve cover gasket. So later that day, I replace the gasket (it's a pretty easy job for the DIYer.) When I started the engine back up, I heard a strange 'woop, woop' noise in the engine compartment that I haven't been able to track down. It was probably there before I had replaced the gasket, but I didn't hear it until I had the hood open. The strange thing about it was that it was NOT RPM dependent. I'd rev the engine, and I'd continue to hear it at the same 0.5 sec-ish frequency. I had the interior blower fan off.

My questions are:
1. What bearings spin when the engine is running that don't vary with the engine speed?
2. Is the power steering pump speed variable?
3. How about the oil pump?
4. Is the power steering pump monitored by the oil pressure MIL?
5. Any ideas???

TIA for any help,

dpd

is the oil light still on?can you be more descriptive on your noise?oil pressure light dedicated to engine only.how many miles on car?has timing belt been done?has oil been changed regulary?