Oil Failure

[Soundguy]

cheap oil on a regular basis would have been alot better than no oil!

yikes!

soundguy

 

[TPS]

That is the truth Soundguy. I think I see a trend here and the moral is change your oil and filters in a timely manner whatever oil you use!! Matt_Jr, good heads up on checking and changing our other fluids as well.
TPS

 

[Bird]

Oh yeah, when's the last time you flushed your trans, brake and powersteering fluid, and serviced your diffs and transfer cases? I see failures in those components more than engines due to lack of fluid changes.

My little 2001 Ford Ranger had 36k miles on it when I bought it. I had the dealer do the transmission flush at 39k and again at 60k. Coolant flush at 48k, and I even had the brake system flushed at 60k. Most folks agree that the coolant and transmission should be serviced, but there's some disagreement on the brakes. The assistant service manager at my dealership has doubts about the need for it, but said, "We do offer that service" so I had him do it.

Incidentally, the dealer has been recommending oil & filter every 3k miles, which I've done with my vehicles for over 20 years, but now the dealer changed to synthetic oil and recommends changing every 5k on mine; 7.5k on the new cars.

 

[Soundguy]

and if we are talking tractors. many units have diffy /rear end / final drive changes at 600hours or less..

soundguy

 

[Eagleview]

I would like to help those who may not necessarily understand what the oil light on the dash represents . I would like you to know that I don't think your silly for not knowing , it's just something that has not been explained to you well .

The oil light is illuminated when oil pressure is below 7 PSI . So when the engine is stationary and the ignition is turned on , the light will come on as no oil pressure is acting on the sender unit (oil pressure switch) screwed into the engines oil gallery .

When the engine starts , oil pressure rises and the light goes off . An engine needs 10 PSI of initial oil pressure and 10 PSI for every 1000 revs after that to keep a film of oil between the crankshaft bearings which stops them touching , metal to metal . So you can see , when the oil light comes on , you have less than 7 PSI of oil pressure which as you can also see , is not nearly enough . The engine must be shut down immediately if it is to be saved . The only time you would not is if your life was in danger i.e if coming down a mountain pass with a horse trailer and the light comes on . A situation where throwing the vehicle out of gear and turning off the engine may put your life at risk because of loss of power steering and power brakes . In this case keep that engine spinning until you pull the rig up , the engine will be dead but you wont be .

The oil light WILL come on when the oil level is extremely low but this is because the oil pump has sucked air and activated the oil pressure switch , not because the oil level was low . This is why people believe that it heralds low oil volume , because it came on just before an engine blew and when checked , the oil was low .

I hope this is recieved in the manner it was posted .

 

[Soundguy]

I think what confuses some people is that some 'fancy' vehicles have both an oil pressure warning lamp, and a 'low oil level' indicator lamp.. in many cases.. they never see the low oil pressure lamp on a 'new vehicle'.. but occasionally see the oil level low, if they are not maintaining it. then they hop in another vehicle with only the pressur elamp.. see it.. and think it's low on oil. ( just my theory anyway.. )

soundguy

 

[Matt_Jr]

I would like to help those who may not necessarily understand what the oil light on the dash represents . I would like you to know that I don't think your silly for not knowing , it's just something that has not been explained to you well .

The oil light is illuminated when oil pressure is below 7 PSI . So when the engine is stationary and the ignition is turned on , the light will come on as no oil pressure is acting on the sender unit (oil pressure switch) screwed into the engines oil gallery .

When the engine starts , oil pressure rises and the light goes off . An engine needs 10 PSI of initial oil pressure and 10 PSI for every 1000 revs after that to keep a film of oil between the crankshaft bearings which stops them touching , metal to metal . So you can see , when the oil light comes on , you have less than 7 PSI of oil pressure which as you can also see , is not nearly enough . The engine must be shut down immediately if it is to be saved . The only time you would not is if your life was in danger i.e if coming down a mountain pass with a horse trailer and the light comes on . A situation where throwing the vehicle out of gear and turning off the engine may put your life at risk because of loss of power steering and power brakes . In this case keep that engine spinning until you pull the rig up , the engine will be dead but you wont be .

The oil light WILL come on when the oil level is extremely low but this is because the oil pump has sucked air and activated the oil pressure switch , not because the oil level was low . This is why people believe that it heralds low oil volume , because it came on just before an engine blew and when checked , the oil was low .

I hope this is recieved in the manner it was posted .

Good post. Mind if I post this up at work? Got some customers that should have that posted on their dash as a reminder.

 

[Eagleview]

Thank you , be my guest .

 

[Rob-D]

I think Matt jr. had the key. take off your oil cap and look in with a flashlight. If you see clean aluminum and steel you're probably doing what you should for the most part.
For me it's about engine wear. I've taken Porsche engines apart with 100k on them and seen worn camshafts. Porsche's by the way have a dry sump lube system or at least used to when i worked on them, that takes about 15 quarts of oil. the boxer is about one of the nicest engines I've ever seen by the way and not cheap. You don't want to skimp on oil or changes especially when you're running aluminum to aluminum.
I've had several cars that ran over 250k and the engines were still good (one did have worn valve seals though). I ran the best oil I could get and today I run syntehtics in about everything. You can get a longer run out of them if you check your oil professionally but I just change it in a realistic time frame.
The best thing you can do is change your tranny fluids out by 30k. I'll bet a lot of heart ache can be prevented by doing that! Smart cabbies do it for the most part when they own their car.
Break fluids are low moisture content these days but it's not a bad idea to push a little fluid out the end once and awhile. You'll probably save wearing out your disks from rust deposits.
My cars definately get better mileage with synthetics and winter starting is also a plus in my cold climate.

Rob

 

[RWEST]

Speaking of the idiot light - reminds me of that "Home Improvement" episode where Tim's wife (Jill??) locked up the engine in her car, and when he asked her about the oil light, she said "yes it was glowing, but I thought it would get REALLY bright if there was a big problem.." (or some such). Funny episode.

BTW - The 10PSI/1000 RPM is a good rule of thumb, although some engines can get by with less (Small Block Chevies and Fords, for example), while others need more (Cleveland Fords).