Sudden Loss Of Oil pressure

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ifloochies

Well-Known Member
So as the title states, was parked in the disco at an intersection waiting for the lights to change when the oil pressure warning light suddenly came on, so quickly pulled away and parked safely on the side of the road and shut off the engine.
Oil pressure sender is only 2 weeks old from when I installed this engine from a scrapper, so I assumed I had a duff sender and went on to replace it with the 13 year old one from the old engine. Started the engine and the light still stayed on. Starting to worry at that point, shut off the engine and proceeded to slacken the banjo for the turbo oil feed, restarted the engine and I had oil flow there. With the engine still running, noticed that the light would go out when revved past 1500rpm, and come right back on when the pedal is let off. Currently engine runs fine when started with no noise to indicate that any parts are being starved of oil. As said, the engine is a replacement from a rotten discovery automatic with only 117K on the clock at the time of scrapping it. Engine was installed with new 10W40 Shell oil and a Donaldson oil filter, and have driven less than 80 miles since I put it in 2 weeks ago. Really stumped here....what could be the cause of said problem?
 
Cheer up! All the experts are probably at work and you'll get responses once they get home I'm sure.
I had the same on my Renault camper van, a spare sh sender cured it only temporarily.
A new sender has sorted it.
Try a new quality sender Not a cheapy one!
I'm unsure if that engine has a pressure relief valve somewhere? In the filter adapter maybe?
Someone will know.
Also check the wire isn't earthing somewhere, they can crack with the heat and expose the wire.
 
you could get a reliable machinacl gauge take out electric sender and screw it in and see what pressure you get could be oil pressure relief valve on natural aspirated 2.5 engines valve is in oi l pump body never worked on a 300tdi but I expect they are the same on looking on internet it looks like 300tdi oil pump is on front of crank shaft behind timing belt if you look on internet you will learn a lot about 300tdi oil pumps
 
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@neilly, yes its a 200Tdi....
Even without plugging in a mechanical gauge to confirm oil pressure, it looks like pressure is way down. For one, with the oil feed to the turbo slackened off, I would I assume it would be spewing oil everywhere at any engine speed above idle; it currently isn't. Secondly, with the oil filler cap removed and a light shining in there, doesn't look like there's much oil splashing around, even when the engine is revved up. Have now tried 2 good pressure senders, and as said, with all of them, the light does go out when the engine is revved above 1500rpm.... properly gutted here. In my 13 or so years of running my previous 200tdi as my daily drive, the only thing that ever needed attention was the timing belt, and that was by way of preventive maintenance.
 
as said befor you will get lot of info and images on internet but if a 200 oil pump in sump why on earth change it to affront conectric oil pump they have given trouble in v8
 
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200 quite famous for the cam bearing moving exposing the oil gallery and loss of oil pressure, could also be piston oil spray jet?
Mates did the cam bearing we tried new sender then new oil and it was fine until revs dropped at idle then the light came back on every time.
He got another engine and we fitted it, then striped the old one down it was showing wear everywhere but plenty of life left in it all apart from the cam bearing that had moved.
 
Ive bee trying to find the pics but cant! but I think if you remove the lift pump and the other side plate, using a mirror and a torch you should be able to see if any have moved.
google 200tdi cam bearing and look at the images
 
200tdi is good but sadly some do fail and I would say much less long term hassle than any of the v8s.
 
So you're NEVER EVER EVER believe what the problem was....
Turns out the oil pump casing had broken, allowing the oil pump body to drop into the sump! How that happened, I have no idea!!:confused:
I googled "200tdi broken oil pump", and surprise surprise, nothing remotely similar to be seen.
IMG-20170317-WA0003.jpg
IMG-20170317-WA0004.jpg

Replaced it with the pump from the old engine, put everything back together, and problem solved:D
Can't explain how the pump casing failed, but glad it was nothing more serious like the slipped cam bearing scenario I was dreading.
 
Dont think so, but you never know whats gone on in an engines past, ie car crashed, previous sump punched up whilst off road, pump dropped during other repairs etc.
 
very interesting I know v8 more problems but love the sound especily with nealy straight exhaust what I don't like diesels when you get pump trubel they can tell you any thing and you cant get spares to repair it your self and charge you a fortu ne
 
Does the drive shaft and gears turn freely?
Yes mate, the shaft/gears turn freely...whiles it was still in there, it still managed to get lubrication to the parts that needed them in the state that it was, so I'm guessing there's nothing physically wrong with the pump/gears. Have since showed it to a couple of guys and LR mechanics, and no one has ever seen one fail like that.
 
Very nice fix, I had the same problem with my old engine so when I had a chance to get a replacement from a friend o rebuilt the spare and dropped it in my 90.. Sadly the fault continues even tho this engine runs sweet and never threw any problems up for my mate... Tried two new sender and nothing so fitted a cheapo oil pressure gauge which shows about 15psi when the oil light flickers or comes on and I try to ignore the oil light and trust the gauge
 
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