presure!, low oil Options

[6gc_ct]

Getting disturbingly low oil pressure. brought the car to be diagnosed, one of my issues was that after driving for half hour maybe longer, at IDEL rpm only, the oil sensor light would come on sometimes just flicker. mech called me and told me that at 3k i was only pushing 15psi which is damn low. i dropped my oil pan yesterday to have a look see and everything looked ok. my bearings were tight, that and i never had any knocking noise while driving. my pick up screen was clean and clear. only thing i can think of would be oil pump but how could i tell without pulling it off?

[Bitter]

the oil pump isn't that expensive compared to the engine, just replace it. uncommon that they go bad though.

[Jamchell]

I think toyota had an engineering defect in their engines(clog prone oil channels) starting around june 1996 and going on till about 2001. So you might also be running into this problem. Don't drive it warm while this is going on or you will wear your engine out fast!

If this doesn't apply to your car, I'd check compression on your cylinders. If it's still good, pull the oil pump and check for wear.

[Bitter]

compression has nothing to do with oil pressure.

[6gc_ct]

motor doesnt have much mileage to it just rebuilt it last month, maybe two. but it was burning oil bad before i rebuilt (at least 5 quarts within a week) so i was thinking maybe oil pump is worn out from being low on oil at times. I dont have a problem buying one, but just rather be pretty sure that guessing thats the problem as i just put down cash on rebuild costs. im sure some of you guys can understand lol.

[Jamchell]

compression has nothing to do with oil pressure.

Thats right, however I think it relevant if the engine is worn enough to need an oil pump to do a compression check. Might need to do a whole lot more work and I'd want to gauge if it's better to swap a new engine in there. The fact that the engine was just rebuilt changes this though. In that case then I guess whoever rebuilt it thought the pump was still good, or didn't bother to inspect it.

This post has been edited by Jamchell: Jun 25, 2010 - 10:16 PM

[6gc_ct]

this is correct jamchell. should have checked it, yes. but we all make mistakes. and if its the pump or not is still unknown for now

[Jamchell]

Was my mistake for not clarifying, anyways what year is the car? If it was rebuilt in the last 1-2 months at a shop maybe you can take it back to them to have it repaired under warranty?

[6gc_ct]

nah, i had a min wage job at the time. It was all my work. Its a 94. refurbished head. i believe a 98 block from a camry that had 70k. Had it honed and measured. got good comp. Runs fine just the oil

[presure2]

i would suspect the oil pump, but the only way to really tell is to pull it, and at that point, i'd just replace it. (IIRC the pump itself is under 100$)

[6gc_ct]

lol i like that. and your almost there, stopped at advanced today to see how much they charge and it was about 150. Martin has one still in its box for farless so im going to give my money to him. I really do hope its the pump though