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Chevy Astro 2000 passenger

The oil gauge is up and then the check gauge light comes on as the gauge begins to notch down, until dropping to 0 and sitting there.

When this happens, a fluttering, knocking, ticking sound comes from the front hood.
I've checked before and it sounds like it's coming from where a belt is.

I'm no expert.

but I had a slight oil leak when I first bought the van maybe 9 months ago and since this started happening, my oil is almost out in about a week before I have to add more.

but very recently, it hasn't been going out as fast as it was a week or so ago.

What could be causing this? and thank you!

Sounds like you are low on oil, or have an oil pump/pickup problem. But if you are still running it like that, you probably have quite a few more problems than that now ;)

If your oil pickup tube has broken/fallen off... then it will be even MORE important to keep your oil level completely topped off (or even a little higher than normal) until you fix it. Usually when this scenario happens, you will see oil pressure drop to zero on hard stops, as oil sloshes forward away from oil pump.

If this were not the case, it could have been a bad oil sender, or intermittent wiring connection to it. If your gauge is "rapidly" fluctuating... this would usually be the case.

I've had both scenarios happen to me over time.. very different... pretty easy to diagnose.

But since you describe lifters ticking (when pressure drops)... you definitely have an actual low oil pressure problem. As Will stated.. keep driving like this and you will have even bigger problems!