HELP, no oil pressure???? sudden!
 

well me my wife and two sons were on our way back from a christmas play at day care, and all of a sudden my engine stops, check guages comes on, and i start it back up and i have 0 oil pressure, i had to start the car, drive it to speed, turn off the motor, and ect.... now there is oil, so what do i check, and how, i need to get back to work asap, as i am behind in bills, my christmas presents to my family are pretty much crap, please someone help me were to begin, i am very mechanicly inclined, but do not have the book on how the oil pump works and what drives it, and how to remove and replace it if it is the problem, the motor isn't that old, it was a rebuild from GM. so i don't know if they used the old pump or what, it was a long block replacement. so please if anyone can help me i am in very dire need of it right now!! thanks in advance for any info! by the way it is a 1992 bonneville, supercharged.
mike

Okay man. First thing you should do is verify Oil Pressure with a mechanical guage. $15 at autozone, $7 at Lowes for fittings.

thanks for the reply, i run a mech guage and electric in the car, when i pulled it in my parking spot it was ticking like a timex, how do i remove the oil pump, is it in the oil pan?

mmm..the oil pump is crank driven, and thus fairly well burried. I've not done it with the engine in the car, but I can't imagine it being very easy. Something you should consider doing, if you verify that there is no pressure.

Raise front/passenger side of car
remove tire
remove shield in wheel well
locate oil filter - remove
4-6" above it you'll see a sensor that looks like a roll of quarters painted black - remove
remove the 4 bolts holding the oil filter housing to the block
May need to remove oil cooler lines
Pull oil filter housing away from block (may take firm pressure)

2 reasons for doing this. #1, there are a series of small passages in there that could get clogged. And second, you'll see a small metal plunger with a spring behind it. This is what regulates your oil pressure. Ensure its functional and not sticking. repair as necessary, reverse process.

Hope that helps.

Edit: I can give more detailed instructions if necessary. Its actually really easy to do, just a tad messy.

The oil pump is an integral part of the timing cover, or front cover. A lot of stuff on the front (passenger's side) of the engine has to be removed to get at it including the harmonic balancer at the bottom.

Before you do all that, you will want to confirm that the oil pump is the problem. Not saying it couldn't be, but I have never heard of one failing catastrophically. Is the oil level up? Is it possible that there is some blockage in the line to the senders?

I suppose the pickup tube that feeds the oil pump could have come undone, starving the pump. You could check that by dropping the oil pan and making sure that the assembly is bolted up tight.

[edit] hehe DrJay, You beat me to it that time!

Haha I edged that one in :wink:

I was just talking to someone else about this issue and I agree with what you're saying. The pump is a two piece unit, extremely simple, and constantly coated in oil. Highly doubt it suddenly went out. The other option I discussed was, as you suggested, that there may be a clog or other issue with the pickup in the oil pan.

Again, this is all dependant of if the oil pressure is truely low or if its just a faulty sender. Although you did say you have two gauges, and there was a ticking sound. Which would mean to me the lifters are collapsing.

This sounds like what happened to the 93 SSEi I bought. In my situation, the car was being driven then the oil pressure spiked and then dropped immediately. What happened was the check valve for hte oil pump stuck, increased the pressure so much it blew the seal of the oil filter, then no oil pressure. Just a lot of oil in the car. You may have the opposite problem with the Check valve sticking the other way. I would follow the advice of the othe guys. Sounds like they have pointed you to that area to start from. Good Luck.

thanks guys i will be doing this checks today, i will tell you all what i find, i remembered hearing a wierd sound before all this happened, it sounded like something got ran over, humm anyhow i will check all these things out as soon as my wife gets up and off to work, (she's gotta drop the little one to day care. thanks again guys for all your help.

well i took my car to my mechanic, truested guy, tested the engine, and said it's fried. said i need new motor, well that is a bummer, gunna cost 3000,00, considering the tranny is new, my tires, anyhow i am thinking of parting the car out, i have a new trany with reciepts ect has about 50 or so thousand klm.... new tire on front anyhow if anyone is interested in anything let me know, i am a little undecided on what to do but i cannot affort anouther motor.

What? Did you drive it there? What does he say is wrong with it?