Loss of oil pressure in my 2007 Burb

[07Burb]

Well, that's the thing. Yours may or may not have an issue I've seen and heard of many that go along with no issues at all. It's possible that it's just a few bad eggs spoiling the bunch.

 

[nosrndr]

This sounds about right and if your issue is anything like mine the oil change will fix it until around the "50% oil life" spot or slightly lower. Several months back I had to have my lifters replaced as well due to lifter failure and ever since then I can't go too much past the 3k mark between oil changes. I've driven about 6500 miles since the lifter issue happened back in June. I got your same symptoms about 3300 miles after the lifter replacement and was about to do an oil change anyway. After a lot of troubleshooting I stumbled across this thread and had the shop go ahead and do an oil change. I prefer to do these on my own and had planned on it the following weekend but I didn't have a choice. The oil change fixed the issue. Well fast forward to last week. It had been 3100 miles since that event and I was going to be changing the oil this last weekend when the weather actually warmed up. Well the issue arose again while the wife was running errands. The fix? Oil change.

So Friday I bought 6 oil filters to stock up on my supplies and over the next few months I'm going to change my oil once a month or so and each time I'm going to open up the oil filter to see what kind of shape it's in as it's my theory that something more significant may be going on causing the oil filter to fail and therefore causing the oil pump not to operate correctly. We shall see what the end result is but I'm preparing for the fact that I may be putting a new motor in my burb at some point.

Very interesting. Had all 16 lifters replaced at 141K miles. That was 5K miles ago. Oil life at 44%. Off to buy oil and filter and see what happens.

One issue I have is figuring out what "normal" oil pressure is. Mine is bouncing between 20 and 40psi currently.

 

[07Burb]

Very interesting. Had all 16 lifters replaced at 141K miles. That was 5K miles ago. Oil life at 44%. Off to buy oil and filter and see what happens.

One issue I have is figuring out what "normal" oil pressure is. Mine is bouncing between 20 and 40psi currently.

Normal psi for me is around 55-60 cruising down the highway and around 40-50 while just idling with the temp reading at about 210. That should give you a good barometer of "normal"

What's interesting is my lifter issue occurred at around 135 or 136k so almost the exact same mileage as you

 

[wjs0311]

Wife had the same issue today, driving along at 70 mph and the red oil light/beeping/pull over alarm went off. She pulled over, shut the engine off, checked the oil. The oil was fine so she started it back up and drove the rest of the way home without incident. It is due for a oil change in about 500mi so I think I will have her take it in and ask to have the old filter so I can see how bad it is. We are right at 151k and this is the first it has happened.

 

[nosrndr]

Went over to a dealer and spoke to a tech that seemed to know what he was talking about. He seemed to rule out the oil pump, as they either work or they don't, they usually do not revive themselves. Did say it could be the sending unit or the screen that is basically attached to the sending unit. The screen could be clogged up.

I told him I had my lifters replaced. He said that they should have replaced the screen as common practice. (I checked my invoice, and it was not listed). It is only an $8 part. His organization did not do the lifters.

His suggestion would be to have a diagnostic test done, and possibly replace the sending unit and screen. Do both since they are in the same spot. The sending unit is $107, and less than $10 for screen. He guessed 3 hours of labor....

In the meantime, I came home, changed the oil and filter. The pressure popped right up over 40psi and has stayed at 40-60 most of the week. Just running around town, no confidence in taking the car any meaningful distance. Waiting for the snow to clear and some reasonable temps to see what my next move will be.......

 

[jnicks01]

Had the exact same issue after my 07 sat for a few weeks. I changed the oil filter (and oil) and problem solved. I don't buy cheap oil filters, but maybe it was from sitting. Either way, a cheap first step.

 

[07Burb]

Just so you know the oil change fix is most likely a temporary fix as mine has come back a couple of times where the oil change "fixes" the issue but it's temporary. I'm currently in the trouble shooting phase of tracking down the root cause of the issue in my Burb.

 

[nosrndr]

Last week I spoke to my regular dealer. He said they could not diagnose the problem without an actual problem. Although he had heard that Suburbans with my age (6years) and mileage (150K) may be better served with more frequent oil changes. Instead of the usual 4K (that I would lazily let slip to 6k) do it every 3k to 4k and see what happens.....

who knows.... my oil pressure has been good since the oil change several weeks ago, but I am still not ready to drive it out of town for any significant distance....

 

[07Burb]

I always change mine every 3k. This last time it happened I was only 1000 miles into the oil change.

 

[wjs0311]

My wife just got back from a 1850 mile round trip with no issues. Also she avg 20mpgs!

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