300tdi oil pressure mystery

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yerba

New Member
Posts
4
Location
Cyprus
Been driving my defender 90 300tdi with around 250,000km. And after a day in the mountains I got the check oil warning light. The oil pressure will drop close to zero when the engine is nice and hot when at idle. A minor play with throttle raises the pressure again, the light goes out. I verified that the indication was correct with an analogue instrument. The warning will only light up when pressure gets under 0.1 bars. That needs to change. New switch to be installed.
Changed oil, changed filter, checked sump, no change.
Changed the oil thermostat to be in on the safe side. Pressure does not drop to 0.1 bars but it is still low on idle when hot. It is 0.6 bars at idle when hot, when the manual says 1.76.
Checked bearings, very minor wear.
Checked the oil pump housing and gears. The housing is within clearance limits albeit some scratch marks on the cover plate of the gears. The gears showed some wear and tear, but still within limits. To be safe I changed the gears as well. The only thing that was questionable was how well the cover plate was secured when I opened it up. Screws came out too easy.
Currently I am standing with half the car dismantled. Is there anything else I should inspect before closing it up? Any tips or advice? My aim is to not damage the engine.
Kind regards,
Nicólas
 
Cam bearings used to be an issue on the 200, so maybe the 300 are now getting to that age/mileage as well?
What viscocity oil are you running?
 
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