Any ideas what the issue may be, I seem to be getting an oil light flash on when the car has warmed up and at low revs. I just had the oil changed and it's not losing oil. Any ideas what it might be? I'm driving a 03 Discovery V8

 

A couple of things could cause that. First off, what weight of oil did you use? Viscosity has an impact on pressure, that, and old bearings...

 

it was a castrol 5w/30 oil which I thought should be fine given I live in the Qatar. Old bearings sounds like bad news! :-(

 

How bad is it to ignore the oil light and just continue to run it? I only need it for another few months and I don't do huge mileage.

 

Not a good plan. The oil light comes on around 7 PSI. Wear is increased dramatically. In the States, many run a diesel truck oil, 15W40. You could also run 20W50, and install a larger low restriction oil filter, like a MANN 950/4 (Purolator L40316) or the MANN 940/25. See https://landroverforums.com/forum/di...estions-46975/

The factory oil spec says 5W30 is not suitable above 95F. They advise W40 to W60 oils. In Doha it is 95 or above April to October. Really warm in July.

The oil pump could also be cracked. The kit to replace oil pump gears, crank seal, water pump and front cover gasket is about $115 US.

IMHO it would be worth your while to change the oil and filter, plus do a pressure test of the oil. If readings are above 10 at warm idle, and 50ish at 2500 RPM things are normal. Some of the wear surfaces are shown in these pix, along with another source of problems - a blocked up oil pickup screen.

 

Cheers for the advice, sounds like I need to do something about it which sucks as parts are so expensive over here. they wanted £50 for a track rod end that is £7 in the uk. scandalous! Don't want the thing to blow up on me though so guess I'll have to bite the bullet.

 

Its most likely going to be a cracked pump gear. This is quite common on D2s and even more so on the 03/04 models. Its a pretty straight forward fix if you mechanically inclined. I wouldnt bother messing around with different oil weights and filters, regardless of the weight of oil it would not cause low enough pressure to trip the oil light.

 

May just up oil viscosity and filter and chive on. Would not be spending big repair dollars a few months before you will be selling it unless needed.

 

Just an FYI..

I had a cracked outer oil pump gear in 3 spots and with replacement of the Oil pump my oil pressure didn't change a bit to my surpise. 10 PSI prior 10 PSI hot idle after. Mains and rods had no copper showing. I should have done some measurements but attributed my low pressure the the pump findings.

So if your oil pressure is indead low which I'd verify with a external gauge, chances are your bearing clearances on the Mains and rods along with Rockershafts to arm clearances are worn to big.

It would be nice if you could add electic boost pump into the oil system to increase pressure. We boost hyd fluid to 3000psi on aircraft, should be able to do similar with hot oil.

 

Thanks for the thoughts guys, as Savannah suggested I might try upping the oil viscosity and see if that helps