360 ci
less than 100k on engine, this morning had no oil presure, pull off in a parking lot and checked all around and saw no oil spray or leaks anywhere...turned truck off
check oil and has plenty of oil...
could this be a bad send unit or something worse like a bearing gone on the crank?
this only happens when at a stop or in gear at a stop...has oil pressure when driving...
using gtx 5w-30

 

5W-30? That's a bit too thin You should be using 10W30.

 

do I need to look at the oil sending unit and or go to a different filter or a bigger filter? or just try the 10w 30 or 10w 40

 

Pretty sure that the 5W30 isn't the cause of this and will not harm your engine one bit. The sending unit is where I'd start.

 

I have a 96 with a 318 and have now had the pan off for the 4th time this weekend that just passed. Guy who owned it before me never changed the oil, so it turned into a sludge motor, and now, since I change the oil every 3,000 miles with castrol GTX 10w-40 Anti-Sludge, i've been having more problems. Not because of the Oil, it's a good oil, but it's all the crap from before is now coming loose, the old oil deposits and clugging up my Oil pump pick-up screen (At the very bottom of pan), it's getting better but still lotta crap in there, I couldn't believe my eyes when I emptied out the pan for the 4th time, still full of garbage all on the bottom that wont come out in your standard oil change.

I would recommend for you, to change your oil sender, it's at the back of the motor (Under the dash-Use a mirror to see it), and kinda hard to get at, but it's only $23 dollars at murrays discount auto, you need to buy the special socket as well to change it, they will know what it is. ($5) That's where I would start, And if the reading is still really low at a stop I would be looking into dropping the pan and inspecting what is going on, Check the pickup screen, and if it looks clean I would go pick up a *High Volume* oil pump from Murrays or where ever and slap it in. Won't hurt nothing, Plus have much higher pressure, even at Idle. That should solve your problem, don't forget to get a new oil pan gasket if you decide to undergo that project, Starter & inspection plate have to be removed, along with the 2 supports on either side of the pan. I can do a complete pump change in about 3 1/2- 4 hours, and that's with cleaning everything. It's not hard just take your time, and get alot of towels. Very messy and watch the oil don't drip in your eye from the main's and connecting rods.... very irritating and takes hours to wash out completely, I learned the hardway.
Anyhow, good luck and hope that solves your problem.

 

I had this problem with mine. The previous owner had parked it for four years and only started it once. It had pressure but not enough to keep the gauge up at idle after it had warmed up. When I dropped the oil pan to change the pump I found copper all over the bottom of the pan. Any way my bearings were toast and I'm now running on a used engine and saving to rebuild my old one. That started in August of last year I drove it from CA to MT and swapped out the engines in May and it was still running ok.

I hope this helps.

Chuck

 

i use 0w-30 amsoil that shouldnt hurt anything should it?

 

Thats really thin oil. Won't necessarily hurt the engine, but won't cool it the best if the heat is high enough, IMO.

It says in the manual, if the temps are regularly going below 32 degrees Fahrenheit is the only time you should use less than 10w-30 oil.

When i had 5w-30 oil in my truck for a bit this summer, the oil pressure varied greatly between 30-ish and 70-ish. Now that I have 10w-30, it almost never wavers (and when it does, only very slightly) from the 50-60 ish spot on the gauge.

I'd only use 0w-30 if I was in some extreme cold (never above 32, almost always below 0) location year around. Some here have used heavier oil then 10w-30, and if you are in a hot location (southern states or southern Cali), that would probably be OK.

 

Damn. If I were you I'd yank that engine, tear it down, tank it, and rebuild it. That's a guaranteed way to get all of that sludge out of there as my engine was in the same boat and started a rod knocking.

 

A product I've had good luck with as far as sludge/low oil pressure is called AutoRx. I learned about it on the Passat World forums. Apparently the 1.8T engine in the Passats is prone to sludging from the turbo cooking dino oil and the screen on the pump getting plugged. Getting the oil pan off of those cars is a HUGE pain in the ***, and I read a lot of positive posts on it, so I tried it. It cured the problem, and after 50,000 miles it hadn't returned (I was also using only synthetic in it, it had this problem when I bought it). It's a lengthy process, you run it in the oil for 1500 miles, change it, run another 1500, change it again, and you're done. I also changed my oil filter every 750 miles during the treatment, and there was a lot of **** in there. The intermittant STOP messages on the display stopped after about a week.

It's worth a shot. If the sender doesn't fix it, and the engine sounds fine, it might be worth a shot. Since the oil pan is a lot easier to pull on this engine than on that Passat, it's maybe worth doing that first. If it's just the oil pump screen being cruddy that's easy enough to fix if you can get to it.

FWIW

Chris