Low oil pressure at idle

yesterday my V6 3.4l ran completely fine today not so much. My truck started fine this morning but on the way to school I noticed my scan gauge said the temp was running high. It was at about 220s I went to school but after when I left school on the 7 mile drive the truck would get up to 240 temp at idle and the low oil pressure light was flickering on. Anybody have a clue if it's the oil pump going out? Or maybe the seal is bad? The truck is good on oil and anti freeze levels.

 

Would a failing oil pump cause the truck to overheat? I guess that does make sense, if it isn't circulating the oil properly.

I'd definitely get that looked at asap, last thing you want is the pump to fail completely.

 

fluids look normal, not mixed? Any smoke from the exhaust?

 

No smoke from exhaust and the fluids look fine

 

Take out the thermostat, drive around for a while and see if that fixes things. If it does, get a new thermostat.

When is the last time you changed your engine coolant?

 

Did a flush about 5 months ago

 

My main concern is that the oil pressure light is flickering at idle but when I would accelerate the light would stop flickering and turn off and my high temp would go down

 

NICE. Was there any sludgy congealed stuff when you flushed? Any slimy, gel-like crap that came out?

The low oil pressure is (hopefully) a side affect from the engine getting a bit too hot :\. If your oil pump was broke, you'd know it VERY quickly, as your engine would sieze up in like 10 minutes. Hopefully the thermostat is what's causing your engine to get too hot . In most vehicles, you can safely run the engine for a day or two with no thermostat in the housing. It's not a good idea to do long-term, but for trouble shooting, it should be ok.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTw_u396O5o

Oh son of a bitch, the termo is on the bottom. You might have to drain all the coolant first?

Perhaps my suggestion isn't so easy.....

I'd say your engine is overheating for some reason, hopefully its either the fan clutch or the thermo. Not sure how to persue this, but somebody on the forum will...

 

This is why all my vehicles have mechanical gauges

If it was me I would get a gauge on to see your oil pressure .

It maybe the switch is going bad

If I pulled out the Thermostat a new one is going back in

 

Checked the radiator just now after it cooled off and the level was very low filled it back up and now the truck isn't over heating and the oil pressure light isn't flickering anymore. My thought is that the oil pressure light came on because of it getting so hot the oil was thinning out causing pressure to go down. Now I have to figure out where the fluids are going it doesn't look like anything is leaking anywhere. And I have changed the thermostat one time before it's a bitch to get too but not that hard to change. Now the new problem is where is my anti freeze going and why this suddenly happened this morning because I drive the truck about 20 miles or more a day and this weekend I drove over 200 miles on the highway

 

I had the head gaskets replaced about a month ago as well I'm about to drive it back to school for my next class and update on how it is going

 

Isn't our oil light an oil temp light? No disrespect, I just don't know? If it's pressure, it would be nice if scangauge could get that up and working...

 

Check your oil too, see if it looks milky.

Your right about coolant loss, it's a bad thing, especially if you can smell it or see it under your car.....

 

Keep in mind, coolant level does fluctuate while you're driving/not driving. But it should never go below the "low" mark and if your's was low enough to cause overheating issues, sounds like something's up. But some fluctuation in the reservoir is normal.

 

I believe it is a problem with the work that Aamco did about a month ago. They were doing transmission work and I had them change the head gaskets because of a oil leak took them about 3 weeks to do the work. Word to the wise never take your truck to Aamco especially the one in college station. I'm going to bring it to them tomorrow cause the work should be under warranty. And the oil looks fine I have a oil vacuum so I pumped some out and looks completely as it should

 

I always start with "low lying fruit"

As suggested above: Thermostat, antifreeze leak.

The anti freeze leak is either going somewhere or evaporating. Look and smell.

Check for antifreeze in oil.

Its not just Aamco, 80% plus in most things is sloppy, lazy and hack. So we either have to do it ourselves with help from forums like this, you tube, etc. or go find the master who has done it many times the RIGHT way and pay to have it done.

You WILL find it by observation.

 

How often do you check your coolant level??

A tiny leak a few drops a day will add up over time and be just about impossible to find with out a pressure tester .

If your engine was getting Hot enough to cause Oil pressure issues just how hot did it get??

 

Please update this link with what the problem was so some of us can take note and learn.

My guess; The hacks did not torque the head bolts down in the right sequence and used old bolts, or maybe even did not torque them to spec and did the "it is good enough" torque method = leaking antifreeze

But It is just a guess subject to error.

 

Located the leak somewhere right around the ac compressor going to take it the skid plate off to look at it in a little bit