Red Oil Pressure Light

[Drhekmat]

Embarrassing to say this but was having some fun last night in 99 m coupe hooning around in a parking lot and all of a sudden get the red oil light on, as well as developing lifter tick too (or something else). I’ve also developed the common tick after Autocross which went away but didn’t get oil pressure light then.
Oil level full.
Any ideas on what this could be?

[sijray21]

Were you going in a specific turn most of the time? Perhaps a bit of oil starvation with a specific direction. I've had similar issues on track and a baffled oil pan helped to alleviate that problem. (not with the z3, but a mk2 gti)

[BimmerBreaker]

Overfill it next time by up to maybe .5 liter before hoonage, it keeps the s52 quiet...

[Drhekmat]

I put in another quart or so and checked this morning again and light / tick were present. Stressed to say the least.

[BimmerBreaker]

Make sure the level is slightly overfilled then drive it around the block

Wonder if something happened...

Wonder if its actually lifter tick you are hearing. VANOS gets rattley on those when low on oil. Other noises can happen from low oil of course as well...

[Drhekmat]

I’m Scared to drive it with the pressure light on honestly.

[BimmerBreaker]

Start it and rev it just slightly to see if increasing rpms and thus flow will get rid of the light

Oil pump nut fall off? What kind of hooning were you doing exactly? May help us diagnose.

[Drhekmat]

donuts to be exact, I was not above 4-5k rpm though.

[Geo31]

In this case, I think I'd wire in a oil pressure gauge, even if temporarily. I think I'd want some accurate data in this case.

If bringing the rpm up does not bring up the OP, I'd guess: oil pump nut, oil pump itself (less likely I think), internal oil leak (that would probably be worst case). I'm assuming you've checked externally for a massive oil leak.

This is going to sound overly simplistic, but it's accurate. Oil pressure is a function of the pump creating pressure and the various seals containing it. To a much lesser degree you have viscosity (which is also a function of temp), but I'm ruling that out for the moment. If you weren't already over-full I'd suggest some STP to thicken things up and see what it does. At this stage though, I'd hook up a pressure gauge before doing any other diagnosis. You don't want to get into trouble during diagnosis, and you want to have hard data to back up any improvements or lack there-of.

This is definitely different from the more common low pressure at idle (I think I'm believing the leaky piston squirters on that one - it makes the rest make sense).

[328 Power 04]

Also you may have to change the oil pressure sensor, as they can fail.

Reading actual oil pressure is a good idea. Hope you didn't lose the oil pump nut.

[Drhekmat]

Idk if it would be the sensor as I am having actual symptoms of tick as well.


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[Adker]

I would get a mechanical oil pressure gauge on it to see whats going on. You can pull the fuel pump fuse and just crank it with the mech gauge to see if it develops pressure. It may start for a second but should stop in short order.

[Drhekmat]

I would get a mechanical oil pressure gauge on it to see whats going on. You can pull the fuel pump fuse and just crank it with the mech gauge to see if it develops pressure. It may start for a second but should stop in short order.

Thank you. Will be doing this shortly.


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[Drhekmat]

I will also be draining a bit of oil out and sending to blackstone before I go through the labor of opening pan up.

If it does show heavy bearing wear however, are all them accessible via pan or would I need a full rebuild ?


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[Adker]

If the rod bearing are spun, you may be getting light rod knock rather then lifter tick. The issue isn't just replacing the bearings, you also have to get all the metal flushed out. If you drain all the oil, you can run the oil through a fine filter (pantyhose works) to see if you find any metal. You can also peel open the oil filter and look for small metal particles caught in the fibers. I am hoping you don't find any!!

[PbFut]

If zero pressure....Oil pump shaft nut.

[Drhekmat]

There’s a plus side to all of this. I was planning on replacing front struts, Control arm bushings, PS suction hose, and cooling system anyways so those make some of this labor less expensive.


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