T5 2.5TDI oil pressure

[Okaruss]

History: oil pressure alarm intermitantly coming on. no change in engine noise or performance. gradually became worse. purchased new oil pressure switch (VW), fitted made no difference. Made fitting to enable measurement of oil pressure.

0.35bar (5psi) at idle and same when revved.
oil pressure switch switches between 0.75 and 1.05bar, hence alarm.
what should i look for now?
is 0.35bar enough?
could there be a relief valve stuck? or need adjusting?

any ideas?

okaruss

[Transporter]

How many kms on engine? do you have any service history? What oil was used?

[Okaruss]

166k km. replaced waterpump about 2000km ago.
using castrol longlife 3 5w-30 (504/507) oil as supplied by VW dealer.
previous owner had van serviced 10k intervals by VW specialist. unsure what oil was used by them.

[Transporter]

How is the engine inside can you see any sludge there? When you replaced the water pump, did you change the engine oil and the oil filter? If you have the borescope you could look inside through the oil drain plug at the oil pump strainer, check for the gank on it.

What year/months was the van made? If before July/2006 you should be using VW506.01

[Okaruss]

flushed with new oil+filter after water pump fitted. ran oil for about 300km. then changed oil and filter. no sludge present in oil fill tube since pump changed.
van is 12/2004

[Transporter]

VW506.01 is the right oil for your engine. It's hard to speculate what's wrong with your engine but I suspect the camshaft/valve train are worn out and you're losing the pressure there.

---------- Post added at 09:30 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:12 PM ----------

Make sure the oil pump strainer is clean before you do anything else.

[jfoldbar]

the oil pumps going on these is not unheard of causing low oil pressure, though im not sure how you check this. a google search may help.

[Okaruss]

Finally found the time to remove the sump.(Now thats a tricky little job in itself.) Found oil pick up very blocked with aluminium, some sort of fragmented seal and fine strands of stuff of unknown origin. I'm thinking that all this stuff is the remains of the waterpump internals that crapped itself not long back and found its way to the sump.
I've taken a few pictures and will post again with them and some more words.
Now to get that sump pan back on without getting glue over everything.

[Okaruss]

Here is some pics of the blocked oil pick up. putting it all back together tomorrow.

[Sunny43.5]

Thats some pretty scary crap in the pick up will be interested to hear if oil pressure returns to normal after its back together , fingers crossed for you .