200 Tdi Oil pressure

200 Tdi engine 130,000 ish miles. The oil warning light has taken to pulsing at tickover once the engine is warm. My local LR garage says it's a bush which turns on the end of the camshaft causing lack of back pressure. He claims there's no remedy save for changing the block (Jeez!). The only alternative being to put up with the oil light coming on a low revs. Does anyone have any experience of this? BTW - I have changed the pressure warning switch.
Reply to
Swanning About
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On or around Thu, 14 May 2009 06:26:02 +0100, "Swanning About" enlightened us thusly:

I assume oil and filters have been changed per schedule, and further that you're using decent quality oil of a suitable grade?

decent oil will have various standards marked on the tin, and there are minimum recommended standards for the engine.

Reply to
Austin Shackles

Sounds like a worn pump. I've never really experienced a TDi pump so maybe someone can confirm the diagnosis that knows more.

I'm guessing there is also a pressure releif valve in there too.

Austins comments are true to so worth checking first.

Lee D

Reply to
Lee_D

Further to Austins comments, you're not using fully synthetic oil are you? If so, go back to good quality mineral, or semi-synth.

Reply to
Paul - xxx

Thanks for the responses chaps. Oil and filter have always been changed as per. I usually use Castrol diesel 10/40 plus "flush and treat" into the bargain.

Reply to
Swanning About

This is a developing issue isn't it? It was once OK if I read you correctly.

I was never happy with the 300 Tdi on 10W-40 and would expect the 200 Tdi to behave similarly. I always used 15W-40 which, theoretically, should make little difference when hot.

However I had a nasty moment when, after having had to allow my Stratstone friends to put in engine oil (painful on the pocket), came off the motorway after about 130 miles and the little red light came on at the first roundabout. I don't know what the idiots had used but changing back to 15W-40 cured it for the rest of time.

Another alternative to just letting it run red at idle might be to increase the idling speed a touch. You haven't got it idling very low anyway, have you?

Reply to
Dougal

On or around Thu, 14 May 2009 20:08:28 +0100, Dougal enlightened us thusly:

I tend to run on 15W40 in the UK. However, it depends on where you are and what climate - the UK climate for the most part is pretty warm these days.

I forget what pressure it switches at - on an old engine, we used to think it OK if the light flickered at idle on a hot day...

depends on the age and mileage of the engine. You could always put a gauge on it and see what pressure it's making.

The thing about 10W40 vs 15W40 - I don't recall at what temperaure the "40" part applies. At lower temperatures, though, it's going to get more of the

15 and less of the 10. The TDi for the most part runs fairly cool anyway.
Reply to
Austin Shackles

100 degrees Celsius.
Reply to
EMB

... Not quite true as I later discovered. See below.

I thought that I'd delve a bit further ...

A few selected extracts from SAE J300:

Multiviscosity-grade oils (?multigrades?) are defined by both of the following criteria: a. Maximum low-temperature cranking and pumping viscosities corresponding to one of the W grades, and b. Maximum and minimum kinematic viscosities at 100 °C and a minimum high-shear-rate viscosity at 150 °C corresponding to one of the non-W grades.

Single viscosity-grade oils (?single-grades?) with the letter W are defined by maximum low-temperature cranking and pumping viscosities, and a minimum kinematic viscosity at 100 °C. (In our case, a 10W-40 has a lower minimum kinematic viscosity at 100 °C than a 15W-40.)

Single-grade oils without the letter W are based on a set of minimum and maximum kinematic viscosities at 100 °C, and a minimum high-shear-rate viscosity at 150 °C.

To insure that polymer-containing oils do not create a situation in which the viscosity of the oil decreases to less than a specified limit, minimum values of high-shear-rate viscosity are assigned to each of the non-W viscosity grades in Table 1. A special situation exists regarding the SAE 40 grade. Historically, SAE 0W-40, 5W-40, and 10W-40 oils have been used primarily in light-duty engines. These multigrade SAE 40 oils must meet a minimum high-temperature, high-shear-rate viscosity limit of

2.9 mPa·s. In contrast, SAE 15W-40, 20W-40, 25W-40, and 40 oils have typically been used in heavy-duty engines. The manufacturers of such engines have required high-shear-rate viscosity limits consistent with good engine durability in high-load, severe service applications. Thus, SAE 15W-40, 20W-40, 25W-40, and single-grade 40 oils must meet a minimum high-temperature, high-shear-rate viscosity limit of 3.7 mPa·s. (Again, for our case, a 10W-40 has a lower minimum kinematic viscosity at 150 °C than a 15W-40.)

My conclusion to all that is that if you have a choice of 10W-40 and

15W-40 grades for your range of ambient temperatures use the 15W-40.
Reply to
Dougal

On or around Fri, 15 May 2009 21:08:06 +1200, EMB enlightened us thusly:

which is above normal operating temp for a TDi in temperate conditions. more detail from Dougal, interesting stuff.

Reply to
Austin Shackles

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