It appears that Discovery II's with low oil pressure and a flickering idiot light are as common as every other common malady. There are posts from A to Z on the issue. What we need is hard data to answer the following questions and create a truly helpful thread. I also recommend a "Sticky" dedicated to solving the low oil issue problem.

What are the readings at cold and hot idle and 2k rpm?
What is the mileage?
Have the obvious suggestions been tried like proper oil viscocity & oil filter?
Did you drop the pan and inspect the Pickup Screen? Check the "O" ring in the Pickup Tube? Do you see sludge build up?
Did you remove the Front Cover and inspect the Oil Pump Gear? What did you find? Did you replace it? Did that solve your problem?
Did you replace the whole Front Cover? Did that resolve your problem?
Did you have to do an overhaul to fix the problem after trying all of the above?

What fixed it?????

There are so many owners dealing with this issue but just a few are coming back to report the issue was resolved. The only ones that seem to resolve their issues are the "lucky" ones with a broken Oil Pump Gear.

Any thoughts would be appreciated...

 

If your oil light flickers, would not drive and do an oil psi test, or at minmum filter and oil change. Driving with an on/off oil light is not good.

start with https://landroverforums.com/forum/di...estions-46975/

if pressure still low consider oil pump gears, or lower end repair https://landroverforums.com/forum/di...rite-up-48197/

The readings should be about equal at cold (idle and 2000 rpm), becaue filter bypass valve will be open, and you are seeing the oil pump raw output. When oil warms up the bypass valve re-connects and at idle it should be above 10, many report low 20's. At speed, spec is 50 PSI, but in a D1 30 - 40 (not sure why, mine was 44 - 46).

Type of oil used will have an impact. Use the cheapest 10W30 at the quikz lubez places, followed up by 15,000 mile drain interval, and mom's taxi cab service - lots of short trips, extended idling, and regular gas - you'll have the varnish and sludge buildup. Use an oil rated on the shop manual oil page for your temperature. That could be 5W20 if you are at Ice Station Zebra, or 20W50 and higher if you are are on a real zebra photo safari. The diesel rated oils have more cleaning compounds in them, and the function of keeping more stuff in suspension to allow filter to grab it. 4th pix shows high miles with Rotella 15W40 - it does a great job of cleaning.

Avoid the guy in the pictures.

And when you do your own mechanical gauge pressure test, and get good results, it feels great!

 

Great reply to the issue. Just to be more clear... if your Landy has been abused, not maintained, full of sludge, has 200k miles, has clear signs of lubrication issues, then the answer is obvious... you have an appointment with the guy in Buzz's last picture!!!

I am trying to bat for the guy that has a late model Landy with reasonable mileage, good maintenance records, no signs of abuse, no sludge, and the truck still exibits a problem that for all intents and purposes should not have.

Furthermore I am interested in real life experiences with the following:

Did the change in filter and the use of Rotella higher viscocity oil solve your problem or did you gain just 1 PSI at hot Idle which does not solve the problem but may just be above the threshhold of stopping the Idiot Light?

Did changing a broken Oil Gear pump solve the problem?

Did changing an Oil Gear pump that appered fine solve the problem?

Did changing the whole front cover solve your problem?

Did changing out the Main/Crank Bearings do the job?

RoverMasterTech has a great write up on a 110,000 mile Landy with low oil preassure among other problems. This example was textbook; Broken Oil Gear Pump with lack of maintenance driven to the brink of self destruction. But many Landy owners out there have trucks that are perfectly maintained without the broken Oil Gear Pump and still exibit low oil pressure.

I offer this; did the extended oil change service included for free for the first 4 years of the truck's life do so much damage to the lubricated components that we as "second" owners have inherited an engine that can barely make it to 100k?? Remember that when these trucks were new they had an oil service schedule at every 7,500 using conventional oil.

In any case; I am looking for data like the Landy that MasterRoverTech worked on. He describes his Oil Pressure readings at every stage of the repair to give hard data on what actually fixed it.

 

As in all things technical, and expensive, frequently the lesser experienced DIY techs stop looking at the first sign of success. So while they may improve things with MANN filter and better oil viscosity, causes like sludged up intake screen, failed O ring, and worn lower end bearings can remain, just hidden for another day. One recent poster pictured an oil pump that was not cracked, but was quite scored. Each truck is going to be a little different. And frequently owners will get it just stable enough to be sold to next fool. I am the seventh owner of my truck.

I believe wise owners should consider an oil PSI gauge. There was a post about the bluetooth / smart phone app displaying this, but since there is no oil PSI sensor (just a dumb switch), and the scanner does not display it; I feel that phone app is bogus in that department - might be using something else in a "non-standard" computer address (Rover codes may not be same as Mitsubishi codes or Mercedes codes or Morse code - CQDX).

As for the 7500 mile interval and 10W30 not getting you to 100K, would think that would be a stretch as well. Now 200 - 300K, may have more impact. A lot of Rovers were first owned by highly leveraged couples, once economy soured, offspring arrived, and adjustable rate mortage ratchetted up; cost cutting in life style began. So that drain interval slid on out to just before lease turn in.

 

I can go from common to uncommon.

Common: thin oil, WILL MAKE A 10 PSI DIFFERENCE AT IDLE-
Worn Bearings - low pressure at idle - o.k. pressure at 2000 rpm (not nec. a problem. You really only need 5 or 6 psi to float everything at idle) May lead to noisy valve train (main priority oiling)
Wiped out rocker shafts can also lead to low oil pressure at idle, but not like 5 or 6 psi - and they will be noisy as hell and an easy diag.
Cracked oil pump - In my experience does not effect oil pressure. (but its a ticking time bomb)
UNCOMMON:
Sticky relief valve in timing cover - never ran across one.
Cam Bearing fell out - seen once - had like 7-9 psi at idle and light flickered.
Clogged pickup / pickup o-ring - never on a Bosch motor

I mean its not rocket science, If you are using correct oil the most likely culpret of low oil pressure is going to be bearings.

 

I got the rover shop to just change the whole timing cover and put in one that they swore was good.(oil pump gears) and instantly oil pressure was perfect. No light flickering at all. Cost me $1100 bucks.