My wifes 05 lost oil pressure. The first thing I did was change the oil pressure sensor. No dice.

So, I pulled the pan and the pump. I believe I found the problem in the pick up tube. The screen was clogged with what looked like fibers from the filter.

I took the oil pump apart anyway, since I had it out, and I found the pressure regulator stuck open a little bit. I took it apart and sprayed it with Electra-Clean (like brake cleaner on steroids), coated it with some oil, and worked it in and out several times. It is fine now and moves easily. I guess maybe, some of the fibers had it wedged in or something.

What would the pressure regulator being stuck open like this do to the oil pressure?

 

Man, that sucks

How many miles on the engine? Did you take the oil filter apart to see what was in it? With the relief open I would expect some oil pressure, just lower then normal. Any signs of metallic in the pan?

Eric D

 

Yes it will, but you have to find the source of all the stuff you found on the pick up. That's what probably caused the pressure valve to get stuck.

Julio

 

I didn't take the filter apart, but the material that was clogging the pick up was fibrous. Can the filter material go bad? ....dry rot sitting on the shelf?

So this would the valve open cause low oil pressure or no oil pressure?

 

Starting with cold oil I would expect you will still see some oil pressure even with the part open relief valve. The relief typically opens at start with very cold oil when the viscosity is high. The relief will also open at higher engine rpms around 3000 and above, again depending on oil viscosity.

The main reason for suggesting opening the filter up is to see if there is a blockage there as well and to see what debris you find. If metallic particles are found I would be pulling connecting rods and main bearing caps for inspection as well.

Hey, just my 2¢

Regards,

Eric D

 

What brand of oil filter are you using? And yes a stuck open P/R valve will cause little or no oil pressure.
But most importantly, your oil flow go like this. From the pickup screen into the pump then into the filter then through your cam & main bearing and lifters, rods.............See where this is going?
If you have debris on your screen from the filter there is going to be some in the oil galleys also feeding your bearings and lifters.
Also you mention it appears to be a fibrous material, well most all of the oil filters I have cut open use a paper for filter material.
Sounds like some further investigation is required at this point not to mention disassembly.

 

My biggest concern would be "How long has the engine been running with oil pressure problems, and how much damage has that fiberous material done to the bearings?"

You need to track down the "source" for that contamination, but it sure sounds like the oil filter .... I can't picture anything else in the engine oil system that could contaminate it like that.

As somebody else asked, what brand of filter is it ?? Did you tear open the filter to inspect for debris, or to see why the paper element is breaking down ????

Good luck, and if you feel like everything is OK and after replacing oil and filter .... I wouldn't run the engine more than say 50 miles before I replaced the filter and oil again. I'd open up that new filter and see if it picked up more of the fibrous material ..... which it probably will because some of it is in your oil galleys right now.

 

I can't believe a filter would come apart in this day and age. Even a cheap one!

Mike V

 

This is the material that was clogging the pick up tube. It was completely covered, but I sprayed it and hit it with a brush before I thought about taking a picture. Sorry, it's a little blurry.





Here is the filter that was on the car:





I took it apart as suggested and it doesn't look to me like it is blatantly falling apart. but the fibers look just like the fibers in the pick up tube.






This is the pick up tube after cleaning with a brush and some nasty chemicals. You can still see a few fibers. They were incredibly hard to get off of there.





Inside motor. Hopefully no damage is done to the bearings. I can see oil dripping off of everything, so it wasn't completely oil free before it was shut off. I thought about taking a rod bearing cap off to take a look at the bearings.

 

Wow,

This is really a strange one for sure. Anyway someone could have left a rag in your engine? May have taken a while for it to break down???

If you didn't find anything metallic I would leave rods and main caps alone and hope for the best and put it back together.

Keep us posted and good luck!

Eric D

 

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Look at the metal "cap" on the right side of the picture ..... it sure looks like some of the metal is missing .... maybe it got damaged when you tore the filter system apart ... but looks very odd to me.

 

Yea, I cut it open with tin snips and got a little close to the edge.

 

Edit: OK I just remembered that I still had my last pure-one filter in the drain pan. I cut it open and found that it just looked like an oily filter. If you look at your picture, you can see that the fibers coat the filter. I bet if you wash that filter with some laundry detergent and hot water, all that fiber will wash off and you will have what looks like a new filter underneath with no deterioration!

Here is what I would do. I would install a new filter, run the car in the garage for 20 minutes and monitor the oil pressure. Just let it idle, if oil pressure drops, shut it down. Then remove the oil filter and cut it open. If you find debris you know its a rag and you need to do more flushes or take it to the dealer. I understand the dealer has a rig where they can remove the sensor and install a flush rig to flush out the system. Something to think about.

Mike V

 

Hmmmm.......I guess I'll take the paper element completely out and see if the inside has the fibers on it. Since oil flows from the outside to the inside of the filter, it should be fiber free. Also, I still have the old oil. I think I'll get a paint filter, pour the oil through it, and see what is left in the filter. I can't imagine it's a foreign object. There is nothing in the old oil that you can see (like large pieces).


The flush tool is good to know. If I'm not satisfied with the oil pressure when I get it back together, I may look into getting that done.

 

True, the inside of the filter should look just oily.

The quick and cheap route is to run the engine and cut another filter, otherwise it will cost you a couple hundred bucks to remove the intake and run the flush.

Mike V

 

UPDATE:

I got the car put back together. Filled it up with oil and I have 42 lbs of oil pressure at idle. I have to be somewhere, so I didn't get a chance to drive it, but will tomorrow.

I have several 280 Micron paint filters that I am going to use to filter all the old oil and the filter. I am going to take out the oil filter element and wash it into the paint filter. Hopefully if I can get a big enough sample, I (we) can figure out what got in this motor. Thanks for everyones help so far.

 

Has anyone ever been in the motor? Hard to believe a filter would do that and you wouldn't have big problems with bearings, etc. I am wondering if a paper towel or something else got left in the valve cover or something like that.

 

That was my guess as to what it was (paper towel)

Hope it all works out !

BC

 

You could also send the oil off for analysis, just to see what comes back.

 

Well, I filtered the entire amount of old oil that came out of the car when this occured. I also took the filtration media out of the oil filter and washed it into the same 280 micron paint filter. I washed what was in the paint filter and allowed it to dry. I will post a picture later, since my wife has the camera and she won't be back until later tonight.

OK, as I said before, I started the car yesterday and had 42 lbs of oil pressure at idle. I drove it about 30 miles today and the results are not what I was hoping for. Oil pressure was fine until the oil got to operating temps. After the oil warmed up, my running pressure is around 20 psi. When I got back to the house and let it idle, my pressure was only 6 psi.

What was odd was, while I was driving, any time I let off of the gas, the oil pressure would increase around 10 psi. For example, if I was driving along and the readout was showing 17 psi, as soon as I let off it would increase to 25-27 psi. If the readout was showing 21 psi, the psi would increase to 30-31 psi. I even drove down a long downhill section and the oil pressure stayed up the whole way down, until I got back on the throttle. I still don't hear any abnormal noise out of the bottom end.

Does this sound like bearings? or is the pressure relief valve stuck open again?