Most people already know about my little "driving through a massive puddle too big" incident coming back from my drag run that in turn sent my oil pressure gauge to dead zero and my oil light come on.

This has me stumped with what I've checked. I need some help of course as this is really confusing me.

So, gone through a MASSIVE puddle, water has gone everywhere, oil light has come on. ive pulled over, havent seen or felt any oil. started it up a few times, sounded very...strange starting like the timing was out but when it started it ran fine.

Towed it home, and drove it up the driveway under minimal load with light clutch into the backyard, oil light on and gauge still at dead 0

Put a new oil pressure sender in. start car quickly, after 3 attempts it starts and light is still on.

take off crank pulley, check timing, timing is spot on. Also no trace of water at all behind the timing covers. no trace of water in the intake, coil pack, or spark plug holes (blew them out anyway)

This light is on for a reason. But without water actually getting to the oil pump, what the hell could cause low oil pressure? i gather if the switch is faulty it wouldnt work at all, but it's on, and I need to know why.

crank/cam sensor looked dry. I need to know why it's now harder to start like now some triggering settings are out of whack and it wants to start but doesnt.

so it's on stands again, which i'm not overfly fussed about as this is why I got a 2nd car. sucks that out of everyone who went through the puddle the trusty ol' 2nd gen was the only one to DIE in it.

So again...what the hell could be causing this? ask as many questions as you need, I'm stumped.

Could you put a angloue pressure gauge in the place of the electronic oil pressure sender unit that way you know what the actual oil pressure :)

If you got good oil pressure then replace oil switch and oil pressure sender because they may be damage :)

Already have one mate and it reads 0psi :)...was reading a healthy 36psi at idle, now 0

any water in the oil, or oil in the coolant? Did the water knock the oil filter right off the engine?

Collapsed/squashed oil filter?

flattened sump, squashed against the pickup?

Water in the oil could be. Drain oil and check and refill.

it would be very apparent if there was water in the oil, the dipstick would be milky like a ferret

The engine bay was pretty damn stoked, I'm positive when I had a quick look there was no way water could gave gotten in the oil..

water in the oil wouldn't give you zero oil pressure anyway.

flattened sump, squashed against the pickup?


the sump wouldnt hafta go up far for the pickup 2 hit bottom and u wud loose oil pressure, water cud do that.

Check the oil pump pressure relief valve, this can get cocked and jam open resulting in nil or minimal oil pressure (you still have flow).

...theres no way the water could have messed with the wiring itself? wouldnt that give you a false zero?

sump off jobby eh...bottom of the sump is fine...
might do what ars suggested and take out the oil sender and turn the motor over by hand see if it pumps oil out.

just take off the oil cap and you should see oil being squirted from the rocker arms.

ill try what ass suggested first as i want to minimize time the motor will be running.

change the oil filter. thermal shock may have collapsed its innards. but then the bypass valve should still give you pressure.

puddle + TR + splash = no oil pressure. My analysis is WTF? All I can suggest is change the oil and filter, if no good, sump off, oil pump out, dismantle and inspect, repair, reassemble, drive. Hope you have plenty of spare time! The more you get into the motor the more likely you are to find and solve the problem.

Seems so...last oil pump I put on was a 2nd hand unit but checked out ok. ah well. Not fussed, now that I've done it once already it's not such a big ordeal this time, amazing what you can do with the proper tools. Eh I'll start sussing it out on the w/e!

use an oil pressure tester before ripping anything apart, if there is no (apparent) pressure then check for flow, could be a blocked filter but the filter bypass valve should tend to that, could be as mentioned oil pump pressure relief valve, or clogged strainer (but i dont think your dumb enough to skimp on oil changes)

Well turned the motor over by hand with the oil switch out and nothing comes out >< even when you can feel the compression of the motor, not even a drop comes out of the oil sender hole. Only good news is I dropped the oil and not one HINT of bearing material. thank GOD. I mean not one damn bit. Checked it in the sun for like 3 minutes going "please please please please please"

So eh, shat an oil pump, fantastic.

i remember hitting a puddle in my 180 that caused the exhaust wheel of my turbo to fracture from thermal shock. still boggles the mind this could happen so easily.

Well, now that I know what it is It'll be a few weeks before it comes back onto the road again :( Now I just need to save some coin for a new oil pump....****ers.

Seeing it had no oil pressure at all when running, you shouldn't expect it to come pouring out of the oil pressure sender hole when you turn it over by hand. You still haven't found the problem. I'd pull the oil filter off first and check that, then the sump and check the oil pickup for damage, If you don't find the prioblem there, then you can start pulling the crank pulley, belt and oil pump out.

Mitsu pumps don't just stop working instantly, unless something dramatic has happened. Perhaps the oil pickup has developed a massive air leak, or the pump rotor has shattered or is spinning on the crankshaft. I'd be interested to see pics when you really do find the problem!

i remember hitting a puddle in my 180 that caused the exhaust wheel of my turbo to fracture from thermal shock. still boggles the mind this could happen so easily.
Red hot metal + water will do that - you'd expect the car to have a splash guard to prevent that.

Seeing it had no oil pressure at all when running, you shouldn't expect it to come pouring out of the oil pressure sender hole when you turn it over by hand. You still haven't found the problem. I'd pull the oil filter off first and check that, then the sump and check the oil pickup for damage, If you don't find the prioblem there, then you can start pulling the crank pulley, belt and oil pump out.

Well, all that shizzle needs to come off before the pump comes off anyway, but again, I will give that a shot. Although pickup should be fine sump isnt dented...

Is the inner pump rotor keyed to the crank, or does it rely on the belt pulley bolt to hold it on? If the latter, check that the bolt is still tight. I can't see a key holding it on in any pics I've looked at.

Pretty sure the inner rotor is keyed to the crank. yeah it is. Trying to get a picture of it to show you. But eh, I'll take the filter off and go from there. I can get the sump off in under 40 minutes now, practice makes perfect!

Yep, only a tear down will reveal what the problem is. Good luck, and don't forget to take pictures!!!


http://tearstone.com/events/10090507.jpg

This is how I imagine your garage floor will look like . . . .

http://www.modernperformance.com/blog/srt4_crackedoilpump.JPG


They can break apparently.

Yes they can break but also the pressure valve can get stuck open

The puddle would most likely be purely coincendence, water can not get into the pump area unless the car is under water for a few minutes and even then the heat there is not great so water would not worry it, if it did I would have done many over the years as I hvae had my cars even near under water on a few occasions

I would perhaps think that the oil pressure valve in the pump may be jammed open and another poss as discussed above may be a collapsed filter totally blocking the oil, have seen this especially with after market oil filters

Tuffy needs to get his hands dirty so we can all know what happened.

Oil filter is OEM! Remeber I got them off you mal a few months back :P

How do I know/check if this valve is stuck open? POSITIVE I can get to it while the pump is still on the car...

Yes Madmax....see how toomorrow pands out if I have enough oopmh left in me after TAFE...

Is there any such thing as an electric oil pump or universal fit higher-flow ones etc? Just wondering... If not I probably sound dumb again.

Is there any such thing as an electric oil pump or universal fit higher-flow ones etc? Just wondering... If not I probably sound dumb again.

yes there is but they arent cheap.... cant justify one myself

relief valve has a large hex headed cap, take it off, there is a spring under it, remove, plunger should be bottomed out and slide out easily. if its stuck there is your problem. get it out, check for scoring and seize marks. worth checking if you can before pulling pump off. might even be possible to do this without removing the cam belt.

just looked at manual, yes you can get to it. some plungers have internal thread so you can pull it out with a bolt, dont know about the magna though.

Red hot metal + water will do that - you'd expect the car to have a splash guard to prevent that.

it had one from factory.... my 180 was a stripped out weekend warrior POS haha most people would have been ashamed to be in it. I lvoed it ofcourse. It wasnt even glowing but it was enough to shock it and fracture the wheel. Gave me a good reaosn to buy a bigger better turbo though

no-one got it right.

oil pickup tube bolts had come loose, thus pump was picking up air.

all goes back on tomorrow.

That was lucky but unlucky lol, so puddle was coincedence then which is great

Did you hve a quick look at the bearings while you have the sump off just to double check no damage, although if only a few seconds running should be ok

;1296763']no-one got it right.

oil pickup tube bolts had come loose, thus pump was picking up air.

all goes back on tomorrow.

I thought of that possibility, but I figured a mechanic of your experience would put loctite on those bolts and torque them up to the correct specification. I know I do. Quickest way to FUBAR an engine if they back off. Have a look at the bearings as Madmagna suggests, you don't know how long the pump has been sucking air.

they have been torqued up and loctited now... did it with paulie the other day :D

they have been torqued up and loctited now... did it with paulie the other day :D

Excellent. No way those mofo bolts are gonna back off now!

they have been torqued up and loctited now... did it with paulie the other day :D

My god... 2 unqualified mechanics doing mechanical work? You know what would have made it worse? If i was there helping you! lol

So what qualifications do you need to rip off a sump and loctite/torque two bolts? Experience is worth much more than qualifications!

My god... 2 unqualified mechanics doing mechanical work? You know what would have made it worse? If i was there helping you! lol

Would of got the job done quick if I gave you all some 1/4" tools and a 10mm socket that sump will be on in NO TIME!

Lessons learnt though. manual says 19nm for the strainer bolts. I think last time i only did them up to 12nm. So goes to show, proof read the parts your looking at for torque specification.

I go through a job in my mind and work out which bolts need the torque wrench. I write them down, from the manual, then put the bit of paper under the windscreen wiper so I can read the settings as I do the job. Very handy Miss Mandy! One of the tricks of the (DIY at home) mechanic!