Occasionally I was having the oil light stay on a little too long. Not every time but enough to start wondering/worrying.

I have added a gauge and was not happy with the results. When its cold all is well with 58PSI at high idle and 45ish at low idle. However once its all warmed up it become a not so pretty story. 2000 RPM is ~40, not bad but my low idle drops to 5-6. The light does not turn on but it's scary low.

So this begs the question. Can I just replace the gear set for ~$100 or do I need to spend the ~$500 on the whole front cover...? or am I missing something entirely?

 

You need to be running good oil. As an example, 5W20 installed by Iffy Lube may not have same results as 15W40 Rotellla. And a good quality filter. Oil and filter are easier than front cover removal. Please see https://landroverforums.com/forum/di...estions-46975/

Eliminate possibility of oil and filter first.

If you go in there think about timing chain as well. The cold oil pressure shows your pump is making pressure, when things warm up filter bypass makes a big difference, as does oil viscosity. Pump seems OK cold, but that could be from very thick oil at that temp. You are about 10 PSI low at high RPM and idle. Could be cracked pump. or really bad combination of filter and oil, even sludge in motor passages.

Also this is for normal temp ranges, if motor coolant is 230 - 275 then oil will be thinner. As will your wallet.

 

Fresh oil and good filter did help with the light staying on too long. It's 15w40 ( live in Socal, it was 83 yesterday...). I had not thought about sludge being an issue.

Motor runs at 195-205, never more.

Thank you for the link and ideas !