Low oil pressure 05 suburban

[Lodaniel]

153K on 5.3 liter Burban. It's been well cared for. My wife and I have had it for 100K of those miles.

Issue I am having is a low oil pressure alarm when initiating cold start.
As engine warms up there are no issues.

Last week I replaced the pressure sending unit, still same issues.

It is an intermittent issue, but I ALWAYS get low warning if I am sitting on an incline.

I have heard reasons for this are:
1. Sludge in oil pan
2. Pick up valve o ringtone
3. Pressure relief valve stuck open
4. Bad oil pump

I don't mind paying a mechanic to fix it, I just don't want to dump a lot of money into labor and parts that doesn't exactly fix the issue.

Any advice?

 

[dallasz71]

I recently had low oil pressure issues on my '05. The problem with mine was at idle, it would slowly drop down to nearly 0 psi and the engine would starting knocking. Luckily, I caught it in time.

I tore mine down yesterday, discovered the pick up tube oring was split. While I had it tore apart, I went ahead and replaced the oil pump. It's now running a solid 40 psi at idle, and 60 psi going down the highway. Total cost was around $200 for the oil pump, gasket set, and antifreeze. About 8 hours of time spent and I was in no hurry.

A few things if you do try this.....you can do it with just removing the timing cover. The pickup tube bolt is a real pain to get off without removing the pain, but it's possible. Check out this video on youtube.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoCQEdXYTGQ