Oil pressure

[kevin31157]

Hi guys and gals.
Replaced engine in the old girl 5 weeks ago for lower mileage engine as original engine damaged. Noticed dry oil on outside of drivers wheel and took it back to the garage to check for oil leaks and to see what slight rattling noise was seeming to come from rear of engine. The garage foreman said they couldnt find any oil leaks or rattle problem. Driving home couple days ago the oil light comes on and the pressure guage dropped to ZERO suddenly !! I phoned garage and he said it sounds like inside engine problem if engine rattling. Its not knocking but the rattle is louder. I have checked the oil and its empty !!!! A friend of mine says it could be the oil pressure switch has gone and would account for the sudden drop in pressure although its probably been going over the week. He said once this happens the engine is probably now cooked. Is it possible that no damage may have occured as it wasn`t empty long enough? Where is the oil pressure switch, is it on the drivers side of the engine which would account for the dry oil on the wheel outside rims?
I am hoping having paid out over a grand for a replacement engine fitted that it is still ok on filling with oil and rectifying the fault that has caused it to empty. Plus i am hoping it is the fault of the mechanic that ALSO didn`t check the coolent temp before releasing the car back to me, as i noticed also the water temp guage was at rock bottom and only came up when in traffic and the fans kicked in. The heating worked ok. It just seems to me as though the mechanic hasn`t checked everything before letting me have the car back for which he got a rollicking over the water temp guage. I wonder if he did the same with the oil temp too.
Just on another note, it appears to be that the wheels want balancing aroung the 40mph speed from then after the car runs smoothly again. I asked them to check on balancing and all appears ok except he informs me that all the wheels are buckled. Is it possible for the original wheels on my car can buckle through age, if at all they CAN buckle being alloys???
Any replies sorry to these long questions?
Regards Kevin.

[dapinky]

Kevin,

At the moment I wouldn't worry too much about the wheels - it's the engine which is the main concern....

...when you refer to 'drivers side' wheelarch, I'm assuming that you are UK based, so it is the right-hand wheelarch (guesstimate from your email address being .co.uk).

I would initially suspect the pipes between the engine and the oil cooler - see this thread

In your case it may be that the garage didn't correctly fit the pipes/connections when they changed the engine, which would cause a slightly more gradual loss of oil, or maybe they failed to note that the pipes were in a poor state and leaking from a joint????

Either way, I would suspect that the engine may well be beyond effective use, as once the pressure drops to zero it doesn't take long for the main bearings and pistons to start to wear

From what you say, I would suspect that either the engine was not in great condition to start with, or it was poorly fitted - but it's impossible to say from a written description.

I would suggest having the car inspected by a knowledgable garage/expert - or even publish your location in the hope that someone on here may be able to have a squint at it.

Either way, I wouldn't just fill it up and hope for the best.

Another thought, if the engine has been stored for a while, maybe the oil pick-up pipe in the sump has collected detritus and partially blocked, leading to low oil pressure - but that wouldn't explain the loss of all oil.....

[Megwenda]

Kevin

Sorry to hear of your problems.
As Dave has already said, definately don't try and fill it with oil and start it... if you have any claim against the garage, I believe this act would negate it (but I am not a lawyer, and have no knolwedege of UK law). Hopefully when the light came on, you stopped the car and called the garage to come and tow it in.

I am a little puzzled, in the thread before this one (Cylinder head) you seem happy with the new engine,

THnks guys. I replaced the whole engine in the end as my original had high mileage and it made sense the garage said to replace the whole lot as the other engine was half the mileage and was pressure and leak tested as good. Problem solved.
Replaced cambelts etc sourced from Rockauto in the states and up and running.
TKS again
Kevin

but half an hour later you open this thread to say that a few days ago the oil lamp came on etcetera.

From your Cylinder head post, you mention that the timing belt / water pump were changed.. aren't these on the RHS of the engine? Maybe the oil leak came from then?

*** Edit Of course you may just have been closing the previous post as this problem is a new one and you wanted a clean thread for it

[kevin31157]

Ok thanks dave. I will be getting the car towed into an independant garage where a good friend of mine is a mechanic and get them to check it over, especially the pipes to see if it is in fact leaking from them. I definitely wont be putting any oil in and starting it. If the engine is ok i am extremely lucky but i fear not.
Meg, thanks for the advice too. The post before regarding the head was a previous post before the replacement engine was fitted and i was advised it may be better to replace the whole lump as opposed to taking the head from replacement engine and keeping the block from my old one.
I wonder now if i would have been better off just replacing the head and putting it on my old block, but if its the pipes leaking as dave thinks its a possibility then whether i kept the old block or the new one it probably wont have made any difference.
I will only find out upon inspection where the oil has come from.
Thanks guys for some valuable advice, because i certainly didn`t know about the possibilities of leaking pipes and maybe the mechanics didn`t either.
Thanks again, will update post when i find everything out.

[dapinky]

..... but if its the pipes leaking as dave thinks its a possibility then whether i kept the old block or the new one it probably wont have made any difference........

If the damage was to the pipes beforehand, then no, it wouldn't have made any difference.

The pipes wouldn't need to be disturbed for a head change, but would need to be disconnected and re-connected during an engine swap, which is why it may need someone who knows what they're doing to have a look - it should be imediately apparent if it is a pipe or a joint which has failed (if either) - and may give more direction as to where any proportion of blame should lay.