Driving home the other night the oil pressure warning light came on - switched the engine off as soon as I could.
Put a gauge on and yep - no pressure!
Going to drop the sump tomorrow as I think it may be the oil pump bolt un-screwing itself. Engine wasn't noisy in any way - what do you think the odds are the engine will be ok?
Oh by the way it's a 1999 disco2 auto with 120,000 miles on the clock.
It's better than 50/50 that it'll be ok but whilst you have the sump off you might as well replace the big-end bearings (or at the very least check them).
I think modern engines are pretty robust regards loss of oil pressure. I knocked a hole in the sump of the old Mondeo on a track, all the oil was deposited in a black line about 30yds long. I didn't notice the oil warning light until after I'd driven a couple of hundred yards parked, delivered something got back in and started to turn around. Being up a track I drove back down it back to the road.
OK this was a non turbo petrol and all slow gentle driving but that engine didn't suffer any noticeable damage at all.
I had a golf Gti 16v & that dumped all the oil from a broken pressure swith on the motorway. I got home OK & it was fine once sorted.
The TD5 is a little more sophisticated and demanding on it's oil. There are the turbo bearings for a start and the injectors need very clean oil, hence the centrifugal oil filter in addition to the normal paper one.
I'd be most concerned about the turbo rather than anything else, I'd keep the revs below 2000 so it'd didn't really start to spin fast but don't know how long the residual oil would last before flowing away or degrading. The turbo bearings have half inch oil feed and flow pipes...
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