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Author Topic: Bad oil leak and now low oil pressure  (Read 4401 times)

Offline Reeceyy

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Bad oil leak and now low oil pressure
« on: May 07, 2024, 06:45:56 pm »
Hello, I'm newly registered to the forum but have found it to be extremely useful in the past when needing to do certain DIY jobs. So thanks for all the great info.

I've had a quite a noticable oil leak for the last month that's got worse and now it's really bad so yesterday I topped the oil up to the max level just for peace of mind. Before topping it up the oil was just under the half mark. Up to today the cars been fine. I was driving on the motorway when all of a sudden the red oil icon starting flashing with a warning message saying that the oil pressure was low. I checked the oil level and it's still somewhat on the max line so it never lost too much oil within approx 24h. It's not the first time this has happened. 2 years ago the same message popped up with a loud tappet noise so I dropped the sump and cleaned the pick up pipe which was somewhat clogged and since then happy days. However, 4 months after doing the job, the MOT guy mentioned that there was some oil but nothing serious but it made me think that maybe I sealed it up bad as there wasn't any oil leaks prior to dropping the sump otherwise i would have noticed.
Today I got under the car and it's drenched with oil. It's dripping from literally everywhere and it seems to be coming from the lower part of the engine. I checked between the sump and the block and it's soaked with oil however as it's an oil leak you can never be 100% on where its coming from but I will be doing the job again for peace of mind and sealing up better this time and replacing the pick up pipe instead of cleaning it.

My question is, could the problem be this? Or could it be something else? The leak isn't coming from the left of the engine as oil can be found around the gear box, on the exhaust, on the whole block part of the engine, just literally everywhere. I had a pvc valve problem where the engine was revving on its own but have recently changed it. Could that have anything to do with the leak?? I wouldn't imagine so.

Any input from past experiences or just simple knowledge on this would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks.

Offline ZoliWorks

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Re: Bad oil leak and now low oil pressure
« Reply #1 on: May 07, 2024, 07:24:16 pm »
I'd start by washing the engine. After that, rive it for a bit then get under it and check where the oil is coming from.
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Offline OllieVRS

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Re: Bad oil leak and now low oil pressure
« Reply #2 on: May 07, 2024, 08:49:23 pm »
Ironically you can get low oil pressure from over filling the oil. But I suspect it's something more serious in your case that must be investigated ASAP.

Doing what ZoliWorks said is a good start. Places on the right side of the engine to check out are the oil filter housing, cam chain housing and oil cooler. The valve cover gasket can leak too but not enough to cause low oil pressure.
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