So on my way out last night when I started my car my engine sounded a little louder than normal and as I was pulling out my oil light came on so I immediately turned the car off. First thing was check the dipstick to make sure I had oil and the dip stick didn't have anything on it except a single streak of oil so I thought for some reason I had no oil, but after going back out after a couple hours the oil level was perfect. I'm assuming that's normal and that the oil drains back into the pan.

I was actually waiting for the next oil change to put in an aem pressure gauge so I thought I'd do it sooner and install the gauge and drain the oil to check it. I bought a new oem oil pressure sender as well just in case. The oil looked fine as I drained it, didn't check the filter.

After I finished everything up I primed it for a few seconds (disconnect crank sensor, etc) then started it. It sounded pretty sluggish immediately so I cut the engine before the aem sensor ever initialized. I'm scared to even start it again.

Nothing really happened before hand. It's winter so I haven't been driving the car hard at all. My belt squeaks occasionally and on friday it was sounding a little odd in how it would come and go but I figured I was just being paranoid. The car on the way home from work also seemed like it was vibrating a little extra right before I got home but again I figured I was just being paranoid.

There is a decent leak coming from the plastic lower timing cover that I've never noticed before.

I don't know, any thoughts? I'm pretty dejected right now and have no idea what to think.

 

Gonna have to take it apart and have a look...

 

Do oil pumps usually leak from failure? Could the oil leak be causing the pressure issue? I've started taking it apart., just looking to see if anyone has had past experiences/knowledge.

 

I recently had to replace the oil pump, and the failure was at the oil-pump drive gear bearing. It was shot, and began to leak at idle.

 

What did you all have to do besides the new pump?

Or is that internal to the pump and thats all you had to replace?

 

I just needed to replace the front casing which the oil pump is part of (~$230 4G63 new part). I also added a fluidampr to eliminate any harmonics at higher rpm’s as I think that contributed to my pump failure (rev limit ~9700rpm).


This is the part I replaced.

http://www.streettunedmotorsports.co...e_oil_pump.htm

 

My oil pump pulley nut came off. The pulley itself was coming through the lower timing cover. Lucky the timing belt didn't come off.

So the question is why the oil leak and should I replace the oil pump/front case?

 

Seal came loose without the pulley there perhaps?

 

Lets go back to the original question. There's no oil on the dip stick but then you come back after a couple of hours and the oil pan is full? If I am to believe that, well, there's two ways that could happen. First the viscosity of the oil for the ambient temperature was wrong, the oil was a semi-solid that couldn't flow back to the pan. The other possibility is that whoever worked on the engine last stuffed the flow back holes in the head with something to keep parts from falling to the pan and then forgot to remove same.

 

I don't think either of those are the case. I know the second one isn't because I worked on the engine and as for the first I'm using Signature Series 5W-50 for the colder months and it wasn't very cold anyway.

I might have exaggerated. I checked it immediately (ie within seconds) of turning the car off at first and there was oil on the dipstick but not a normal "line" indicating level. I then checked again about 5 or 10 minutes later and it showed slightly less than the low mark on the dipstick and then when I checked later it was the normal level, maybe slightly less on account of the leak.

 

The pulley has to be seated to seal. I doubt you hurt anything sounds like you caught it quick enough

 

Awesome, so do you think I can get away with reusing the pump?

 

youll have to put nut on and try it real quick

 

Is there a particular type of bolt I should get to replace the one that fell off? I'd prefer to not have this happen again.

 

You would get metal lock nut, and use red Loctite.