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[SOLVED] Low oil pressure at idle

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OllieVRS:


Here's the brake fluid that came out of the car, the mechanic that did it is shocked that my previous garage said last year that the brake fluid was still fine when checked by their machine.

From the limited service history on the car, it seems like the brake fluid was last changed in 2013, or 60k miles ago  :scared:

Replaced with Millers Motorsport Racing Brake Fluid 300 PLUS. Took 1.2 litres. Haven't had a chance to test the brakes yet, but at least I know the fluid won't get me killed now  :smiley:

Cheers

Clarkj93:
Engine oil :grin:? Nice choice in fluid.

OllieVRS:
Trackday complete, and car has survived without any major problems (or so I think?).

But I got low oil pressure on a hard corner towards the end of it. As soon as I came out of the corner the light disappeared. So I assumed right away this was due to oil starvation, but it made little sense considering the oil was at 70% when cold between min and max three days before.

Coming back to the pit slowly revealed the dipstick to be at 60%, on a hot engine.

I changed the oil a couple days ago, completed a 550km round trip to Portrush in NI yesterday (mostly sitting around 3.5k revs), and then did 18 rounds of Mondello Park's 2.8km track today.

Would it make sense that it used so much oil in so little distance, considering how hard it's been driven? I would've expected Miller's expensive nanostuff to have protected it a bit better than this. There are no visible oil leaks.

Cheers

Clarkj93:
Hope you enjoyed!

You should not see low oil pressure on road tyres, these engines are pretty good when it comes to oil distribution on cornering, would only worry about it on slick tyres of very sticky semi slicks.

Do you know the condition of your oil pickup pipe? They can clog up a little and cause issues, not that common but well documented issue that can happen. Simple cleaning sorts them out. But mainly I would make sure the oil is always at max before going on track which is possibly your issue. You should not be using that much of the Millers stuff really, you may have a leak somewhere.

I had an oil leak through the rocker cover gasket which was small enough to not leave any oil puddles but enough over time that I would have to occasionally top up. Since I sorted that out and using Miller's oil I've not seen any oil usage at all that is visible on the dip stick, doesn't do many miles but most of its miles are very hard.

OllieVRS:
I did enjoy the track day, thanks! It's just that little scare at the end that got me.

I had a whole saga on this forum over the span of 4 months back in 2021 about low oil pressure, but back then it was due to the oil being over filled/pick up clogged, I never found out the true cause. This was from dodgy maintenance by the previous owner, and I got the light literally the next day after buying it off them (doing some hard acceleration, but the light only popped up when slowly driving around an estate at low RPM, and then later again slowing for a red light after hard acceleration) , and unfortunately it was a private sale so there was no going back.

The oil had metal shavings in it. After replacing the pick-up, pump chain cover and even the big end bearings on the rods, the issue disappeared and the oil pressure tested fine, measuring within spec using a proper oil pressure gauge. Each subsequent time I changed the oil afterwards there were less and less shavings, so the issue should have been sorted. Engine compression was fine too. The last oil change I did had no visible metal, even a holding a magnet to the used oil pouring out of the sump didn't affect it, unlike with initial oil changes.

On the track today it happened at at least 3k RPM around a sharp bend, a completely different scenario to last time. The measurement of the oil after I took afterwards was on a hot engine, I've not checked the cold level but I bet it's much lower than the 60% on the dipstick I measured.

It's also worth noting my oil level sensor may be broken, a Mechanic's Delphi scan once showed a 00562, oil sensor 'short circuit to positive or open circuit' 'intermittent'. And I've never gotten a low oil light, even despite my oil once going below min.

I choose to believe it's the oil level and sharp bend that caused it, because I can't fathom digging around in the guts of the engine again for months trying to find the cause   :scared:

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