How do you know that your oil pump is going bad???

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by shannon &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">How do you know that your oil pump is going bad???</TD></TR></TABLE>

There is really no way to tell, if you have an aftermarket oil pressure gauge you can see the pressure dropping, but basically the only way your gonna know is if your oil light goes on. And by that time its usually to late.

 

Will it continually keep dropping or will it go in stages?

My oil pressure recently dropped from 75psi during driving to about 62psi. Idle oil pressure dropped from 25psi to about 15psi. I figured it was too many dents in the oilpan but a new pan didn't fix it. I recently installed cams and my friend figures that it's showing up as pressure loss through worn cam journals. If it's a pump I'd like to know before it pops...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by raene &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Will it continually keep dropping or will it go in stages?
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It will drop pretty fast if it just fails, if your reading low oil pressure then that could be from a bad oil pump. Usually the oil pump will just completely go bad before you even knew it was on its way out.

 

what year is the motor? Probably a stupid question, but how's your oil level? Low on oil would effect pressure, right? My assumption has always been yes!

 

I don't think it will, no. At least, I don't see oil pressure dropping as the oil gets low. The pickup sits in the pan and sucks up oil continually while oil flows back into the pan continually. It's just a reservoir - however if you're low on oil it's possible the pump could become partiall uncovered sometimes, ie during hard corners, hard braking or whatever. That means low oil pressure

 

check your oil filter