Low Oil Pressure

My oil pressure has always barely registered onthe gauge. I have 85,000 miles and change oil regularly. Does anyone else experience this problem? I just took truck on a 2000 mile trip with no problems. I don't want to blow up my engine. Any suggestions??

 

Fix it?

 

Hook up a mechanical gauge and actually check it

 

If you dont hear knocking under load then you probably have a sending unit/instrument cluster issue.

 

Thanks. I just watched a youtube video. There is a sensor right above the oil filter. Going to replace that first. I will get back and tell what happened.

 

You woulda knew 10 miles into your 2000mi trip if you had a real problem. Probably the sending unit/gauge.

 

Was just going to say, if ya just drove 2000 miles with the problem, ya couldn't have been too worried about blowing up your engine.

 

I just figured it was supposed to be that low. I'm sure the sensor has been broke awhile, maybe since it was brand new. I t has never read any higher than what it does now.

 

Mine has always hovered around square in the middle. Little over when cold...little under when at operating temp. 0w-30 or 0w-20 doesn't make a difference.

Just a point of reference for you if you put a new sending unit in there.

 

Thanks

 

I understand that this is an old thread, but I am going to tell you my experiences with low oil pressure on a 2013 Tundra 5.7L engine. My wife and I inherited this truck from our oldest son who passed-away in March 2023:

I noticed that when starting the engine the oil pressure would take a very long time to rise past the low mark on the gage, probably from 10-15 minutes for the "needle" to reach about one-third UP from the low mark. Even when driving it would take a few minutes to reach a point about 1/8th of an inch below the center mark on the gage. Also, the oil pressure indicator would not follow the engine RPM, and would stay put below the center mark. It was showing Codes P0012, and P0022 along the "check engine light. These codes indicated that the cam position timing on both bank 1 and bank 2 were over-retarded.

I thought that perhaps the engine oil was extremely dirty, and had an oil and filter change at a local shop. Used 0W-20 synthetic oil, and a Toyota oil cartridge. I went ahead and erased the codes, but the low oil pressure persisted, and the engine light came back as it was before. I replaced the four cam position solenoids and erased the codes once more, and after driving the truck a few miles the engine light and codes came back as usual. By now the codes were "permanent" (stored in the ECU). I searched all over trying to figure what the problem was, and somebody on the Internet mentioned that, "low oil pressure... to sometimes no oil pressure, can be caused by a filter cartridge that has collapsed in the filter housing. The reason for a cartridge to collapse like that is because the housing or filter cover does not have a perforated aluminum tube in the middle."

Please pay attention to the last sentence above, because that was the problem this truck was having. It seems that my son had been driving his truck with a low oil pressure for quite a long time, unaware that the aftermarket aluminum-made oil filter housing did not have the perforated aluminum tube that is designed to support the oil cartridge to avoid collapsing. I purchased an off-brand and cheap oil filter housing that has the perforated tube, made of plastic like the Toyota-brand one, and now the oil pressure is perfect. I erased all the codes a few days ago, and it seems that the ECU erased the permanent codes, too. But only time will tell if the two codes were caused by a lack of oil pressure or not.

Anyway, the Toyota brand oil filter housing is quite expensive, but I already ordered one that I plan I to use during the next oil and filter change to replace the low-cost one that solved the problem.

Another symptom the engine had, besides low rise of oil pressure: Noisy starts. It seemed to be a little noisy, and then it sounded like the lifters were being filled with oil and would make a lot of noise for about 2-3 minutes before they would become quiet again. The noise disappeared after installing the new oil filter housing.

My 2001 Silverado has a 325 Vortex engine, and it does make quite a lot of the "lifter-caused" noise I mentioned above, but the oil pressure has always been perfect, so the noise only lasts a few seconds.

Final note of caution: if you buy an off-brand oil filter housing for your vehicle, keep in mind that the filter or cartridge for it must be supported in the middle to prevent it from collapsing inside the housing. There are two more Toyota vehicles in our household, and all came from the factory with oil filter housings that have a perforated tubes in the center. The perforations in the tube allows for the transfer of oil from the center of the cartridge to the outer walls of the filter, plus it is there to support the cartridge . You will notice that there are several off-brand filter housings one can purchase online, but be aware that the wrong housing can cause a lot of trouble.