michaelmount123

STOP!!!
When all the dash lights are on it's a warning that you have no oil pressure! Don't do anything else until you FIND THE CAUSE!

- Stuck oil pressure by-pass (most likely)?
- Broken pick-up tube?
- No oil in sump?
- Wrong oil filter?

Suggest you post the solution so others may learn.

mhr

I am starting to worry that my oil pressure is indeed low. If I look closely at the gauge when I start the car it does go up to 1 bar. Does not move at all from there but does go from zero to 1. Other than that I have the break, break fluid, oil level, and oil pressure on.

I have cleaned just about all of the grounds that I can locate, cleaned and replugged all of the electrical connectors I can see, checked the connections from the oil pressure switch and they look good.

Any way other than the gauge that I can tell if the oil pressure is indeed low?

I will check the ribbon connectors next. Any other suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks
Mark

mhr

Just saw michaelmount123 post. I forgot to mention that I did an oil change this morning and the filter is the correct one. I am going to look into your suggestions re low oil pressure/

J Berk

Would be very strange to all of the sudden develope low oil pressure after pulling and re-installing the valve cover.

While I think it is prudent to be concerned, I really think your issue is not a mechanical one.

J Berk

I have never heard that before.

Going to go check my factory manuals, etc.

J Berk

FYI

Clark's Garage site has a procedure to test the oil pressure sensor with an ohm-meter

May be good to rule that out

VaSteve

If you didnt touch the dash cluster, why suspect that? If you touched the oil filter, could be loose....cross threaded. Did it run before you did the work?

mhr

yes it was running fine before I did the work and before I put it away in the fall. Also looked like it was running fine for about 15 minutes after the repair until the oil pressure dropped and lights came on.

Perhaps something went as I was doing the test drive. How do I know if the OPRV is a problem?

VaSteve

Did you take it out for any reason? I took mine out for some reason and a blob of snot got in there and it wouldn't seat correctly. Just a little was all it took, but I also got no pressure. Took it out, cleaned it up and all was good again.

Start with things you touched, but maybe a blob of sludge shook loose when you changed t he filter?

mhr

I didn't touch it yet but perhaps there was some gunk or dirt loosened when I removed / installed the valve cover. I tried to clean it up really well and looked to see if there was any debris sitting around from the removal but who knows what I may have missed. I can tell you that when I took the valve cover off the inside of it had bubbling peeling paint on it so for sure a bit of it could have fallen off as I was removing it. It was well cleaned up before it was reinstalled but anything is possible.

The plan is to take out the oprv and clean it when I get the o rings and sealing ring I ordered. But this will probably have to wait for 2 weeks now as I wont have any time and will probably have to wait at least a week for the parts

Thanks
Mark

mhr

PROBLEM NOT SOLVED

So I took out the OPRV took it apart, cleaned it changed the o rings. And everything looks good with it. There was nothing scored and the piston moved smoothly within. I started up the car and still little to no oil pressure. And I have no doubt that there is no oil pressure since the engine sounds sick. I try not to run it for any length of time or rev it at all so as to try and prevent damage.

Whats next? Torque the crank bolt? Is it really possible that after 3 years of running perfectly the crank bolt loosened?

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

gtroth

Pretty unlikely the crank bolt came loose. I mentioned it because it happened to me - bunch of dash lights came on and oil pressure was minimal. I happened to be pulling into my parking space at the time. 2 minutes before that I was @ 75mph or so. Wasn't hard for me to tell if it was loose - crank pulley was cocked.
Hadn't touched my crank bolt in a very long time prior to that.

VirginiaF1

Mahle OC-142 oil filter?
New one out of box, or sat in a cold garage all winter?
15 minutes of perfection prior to failure is telling us all something...

944meister

what mileage is on the oil pump? maybe try another new oil filter first? i know you just changed it, but its worth a try for $7. you may need to drop the oil pan and varify that all is well under there and change out the oil pickup tube o-ring while your at it. your problem is going to be obvious when you find the culprit, dont start the car again until you find it!!! otherwise i will be freightened for your bearings.

mhr

New Mahle filter but was in the garage for a while. I have another to try and will do so although that will be the 3rd with the same problem since it started with last years filter. But worth $7 to try.

The car had 95k miles on it and I don't know if it is the original oil pump but I have no reason to believe that it isn't.