Drove my 08 with 2000 miles on it to a local car event Monday evening. It lasted a few hours. I went to leave and noticed I had a light on and the oil pressure gauge was at zero. I thought it would pop up so I drove around the corner and got on the highway. I only got up to about 50 and drove a few hundred yards and it started knocking so I pulled over and shut it off. I checked the oil and it was full. Had it towed to the dealer today. Worried about what they will find. Talked to the mechanic and he is puzzled. Anyone have any thoughts.
Oil pressure gauge at 0
- Thread starter alpha85
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Olddudesrule
Enthusiast
I'd say the obvious answer is an oil pump failure. Hope not, as that knocking was probably related to bearing failure. Keep us posted.
kcobean
Enthusiast
Yup, I'm going to go with pump failure and major internal damage. I hope I'm wrong. Keep us posted.
swexlin
Viper Owner
I'm afraid I have to agree with the above - engine damage. Why did you drive it at all? If EVER, in ANY vehicle, your oil light is on and/or pressure reads low or 0, shut it off INSTANTLY, and get a tow truck! While it may just be a bad sender, you can't take that chance, as I'm afraid you just found out.
I talked the mechanic a few minutes ago. He is pulling the pan and front of the engine tomorrow afternoon. I will post the results. He thinks there might be a pickup tube failure or a tooth missing on the oil pump gear. He will drop the pan and look for metal in the oil, scars on the bearings and cam.
Martin
Enthusiast
On the bright side, if it is a rebuild, it'll go to Arrow and you'll get an engine back that was better than when it left. The other option is that Dodge might opt to just give you a new crate engine, which wouldn't be the end of the world, either...
Well looks like Mobil 1 may have saved the day. The mechanic called and he took the front part of the motor off and discovered the oil pressure relief valve was stuck in the open position. He dropped the oil pan and found no metal flakes or evidence of failure. All the internals looked good. He took the valve covers off and all looked good. He had to order a new oil pump and relief valve from Detroit 3-4 days. He will put everything back and run it listening for any odd sounds, then run a compression check. Then hopefully all is good.
Phoenix SRT
Enthusiast
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Considering that the engine was knocking, how is it possible that there could be no internal damage?
you beat me to it
swexlin
Viper Owner
Hope you got lucky Alpha. Fingers crossed for you, but I too would be very concerned still.
Black Moon
Enthusiast
They need to pull all the bearing caps while you are there and check for wear. You just can't pull the pan and look around. Call the service manager or go down there ASAP. I'm sure the car is on a rack and checking the main and rod bearings shouldn't be an unreasonable request. How many miles on the car. Do a google search on bearing wear so you can recognize what wear looks like.
Asp Man
Enthusiast
Just a thought, but you might want to see if you can get this thread deleted. Just playing devils' advocate, but...
If it turns out that there is damage, beyond the relief valve, and if they twig onto the fact that you knew there was no oil presure and drove it anyway, why would they feel obligated to honour the warranty?
coupe
Viper Owner
I agree with having them check the rods and mains...and best to check all of them too, not just a couple.
If they try to tell you otherwise and say it will be fine, then get them to put it in writing. Sure, it's a robust engine and might be fine, but make sure it's on them if it happens again.
If they try to tell you otherwise and say it will be fine, then get them to put it in writing. Sure, it's a robust engine and might be fine, but make sure it's on them if it happens again.
vancouver-gts
Viper Owner
AspMan is on the roll here. You should delete this thread and demand a complete removal of all the main bearing caps for further inspection by this mechanic who's so sure nothing got damaged.
If that checks out , the intake should be removed to inspect the cam and lifters.In boats with electric fuel pumps , we use a nanny called fuel shot off [ switch in the oil pressure sending unit ] when the oil pressure drops near zero .With the engines roaring , focusing running hard in a swell, it sometimes easy to miss
when the oil pressure suddenly drops.Maybe car manufacturers should incorporate this feature that would have stopped you driving again after your knocking experience.Hearing a knock from either the bottom end or top end once never a good thing.
Don't let the dealership fool you on this one.
this would drive me insane. Life was most definately taken off the engine. And with the low miles these cars get driven. What if they repair it today, and all is well. Only to have a terminal/cat. failure again, and possibly be out of warranty, at that point..
Can they lock this into the system and give you an extention of coverage on the engine? I would have them tear down the engine..
Can they lock this into the system and give you an extention of coverage on the engine? I would have them tear down the engine..
Martin
Enthusiast
What people are saying above is good advice... I wouldn't let them tell you that there is no damage unless they tore the engine apart and verified everything. You might not have done serious damage, but even a little damage can cause the engine to fail prematurely - and at that point, you'll be out of warranty. It'll be really hard to track a future failure back to this issue, so I'd be on them to make sure everything looks good before accepting the car back.
Edit: the potential warranty issues people are bringing up have some merit, but I believe it's not so cut-and-dried. Generally, it's your responsibility to ensure that the engine has the proper level of oil in it - which it did. It's also your responsibility to stop driving the car when it exhibits signs of failure, which you did. Some argument could be made that you shouldn't have driven it at all with the oil pressure reading zero, but it wouldn't be the first time that someone didn't pay attention to the oil pressure gauge (it's good practice to look at it every few minutes - I pay more attention to temp and oil than I do to my speed ). That said, I wouldn't recommend telling anyone that you drove it after you saw that the oil pressure went to zero - it just confuses the issue with the facts.
Edit: the potential warranty issues people are bringing up have some merit, but I believe it's not so cut-and-dried. Generally, it's your responsibility to ensure that the engine has the proper level of oil in it - which it did. It's also your responsibility to stop driving the car when it exhibits signs of failure, which you did. Some argument could be made that you shouldn't have driven it at all with the oil pressure reading zero, but it wouldn't be the first time that someone didn't pay attention to the oil pressure gauge (it's good practice to look at it every few minutes - I pay more attention to temp and oil than I do to my speed
). That said, I wouldn't recommend telling anyone that you drove it after you saw that the oil pressure went to zero - it just confuses the issue with the facts.
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they run dry faster than the lower end bearings,wrist pins tooWhat about the heads? Did he remove the heads and check the pistons and sleeves? Did he check for bent valves? Did he really dig into the "internals" or did he perform a quick look-see with the oil pan removed? What does Chuck Tator recommend?
Wow that's a lot of replies. I talked to the mechanic this evening. He just got off the phone with Chrysler. He has done all of the inspections that Chrysler has suggested. They have had only one other report of the oil pressure valve failure. It was on a 09 with 8 miles on it. No more than I drive this car it will take me about 8 years to get to the 30,000 mile warranty. I had informed him that I want this documented with Chrysler so if I have problems down the road that can be related to this it will be covered. He said he told them this and they agreed. I will get it in writing. I'm not a mechanic and at some point I have to trust what they say. I also know how this engine sounds and the power it puts out. Believe me if I notice anything different it will be back there quick. As far as driving it I had already pulled out of the parking lot when I noticed it. I was on the street and had couldn't turn around immediately. It wouldn't be any different if it had happened if I was driving on the highway. I would still have had to pull over. It ran for only about 5 minutes. Remember I had driven it to the event so it had oil circulated in the engine. Its not like it had sat there over night.
swexlin
Viper Owner
Please keep us posted. Remember, your warranty is TIME or mileage, whichever comes first. For most of us, we will hit the time limit long before the mileage. Something to keep in mind.
Good luck.
Good luck.
