Low oil pressure after timing belt & oil pump seal change - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

Hot66ss · 05-06-2006, 02:15 AM

Hello all

I’m having some serious issues. I just recently purchased a 94 Camry with a 2.2 with 150k from a trusted co worker. Bought the car and put about a hundred no problem miles on it but was in need of tune up so I took it to a friend of mine (retired mechanic) to have the timing belt changed and some oil leaks fixed. He replaced the timing belt as well as camshaft, crankshaft and oil pump seals, changed the oil and filter as well as plugs wires and valve cover gasket. I was there when he fired the car after this work and it ran great, on my way home with the car about a mile from his house the oil light came on. I pulled over checked the oil level, everything fine. There is no engine noise or anything so I drove the car carefully back to his house. We pulled the oil light sending unit and put a gauge on it. The oil pressure holds steady at 18psi HOT at idle but if you start raising the rpms of the engine it begins to drop down slowly to a dangerous level. He wants to charge me again to go inside the engine and change the oil pump, he says the work he did was good and it’s got to be the pump. Do you guys have any ideas? Could he have done something when replacing the seal wrong to have caused this problem? More importantly do you guys agree this sounds like a pump problem? I don’t know what to do and I'm disappointed with the whole situation right now. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.. oh also when asking the co-worker i bought the car from, he said he has never ever seen the oil light on before in the 2 years he owned the car and I trust what he is saying to be true..

Thanks again

Hot66ss · 05-06-2006, 02:42 AM

oh thought i should also mention, 20/50 oil was used with an AC delco filter. I doubt this would be any problem..

Hot66ss · 05-06-2006, 01:09 PM

Ttt

marc780 · 05-06-2006, 03:31 PM

Low is low, the main component affecting the oil pressure is the oil pump. I suspect the pump may have been marginal at the time he changed the seals and it just chose now to give up functioning. So i would change the oil pump. Sounds like nothing he did should have been a cause of the oil pump conking out, so it is probably just wear that did it in.

noodlerooney · 05-06-2006, 04:38 PM

20w-50 seems to thick to me, 10w-40 is the thickest I would ever go considering 5w-30 is specified. The fact that you are using a 50 weight at a hot idle and only seeing 18 psi is not good, the resistance to flow alone should have it higher. Oil pump seems like a good possibility. Why are you using a 50 weight? Is there an oil consumption problem or...? 50 weight would seem like it would cause oil starvation problems? Worn out bearings with large clearances could also reduce oil pressure. I didn't think an oil pump would go that quickly, I would think it would be a gradual thing as clearances in the oil pump rotors increased? I'm also assuming that there is no oil leakage from the pump through the new seal. If you just replaced the pump rotors(inner and outer) if the clearances are over spec, wouldn't this fix the pump pressure problem? I think that the only time you replace the pump body is if the outer rotor to pump body clearance is over spec. But then again, what the hell do I know...

Hot66ss · 05-06-2006, 08:50 PM

I was using 20/50 because acoording to my chart in my service manuel it had the widest range of tempature use. Do you think i should go to a lighter oil then check the pressure? I thought if anything the thicker oil would give me more pressure.. there are no oil leaks.. I should probably mention the motor was pretty dirty under the valve cover but being that this car never had the oil light on before i didnt figure this could be the issue. what about the ac delco filter being a problem?

Thanks for the help

bronzemaxell · 05-06-2006, 08:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hot66ss

oh thought i should also mention, 20/50 oil was used with an AC delco filter. I doubt this would be any problem..

just curious, i thought the user manual recommended 5w-30 engine oil, maybe 10w-30 for hot summer, did you have a chance to look at what the engine oil cap say?

68Z/28 · 05-06-2006, 09:25 PM

Something does not sound right with what he did. Unlikey an oil pump would go that fast.

Hot66ss · 05-07-2006, 03:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 68Z/28

Something does not sound right with what he did. Unlikey an oil pump would go that fast.

Any idea what he could have do wrong that would have caused this situation? The oil cap says 10w30

Thanks again

68Z/28 · 05-07-2006, 08:44 AM

I would guess the oil pump pressure relief valve is sticking near or at full bypass mode.