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XC90 T6 - Oil Pressure Warning Advice

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Old Jun 2nd, 2020, 11:48   #1
DomF1
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Default XC90 T6 - Oil Pressure Warning Advice

Hello all - I am now the owner of a XC90 T6… I bought the car as a project and as such am looking towards the community for some guidance! I’m glad to be back in a Volvo, I nearly picked up an 850R recently but alas the price was too high…

Anyway, the car in question has the oil pressure warning coming on, along with the oil light. It apparently comes on only when the car is warm whilst driving for about 10-15mins – I have only had the car running and haven’t been able to drive yet as its not taxed/insured, as such I haven’t been able to get the warning to come up. There is plenty of oil, it runs fine, coolant looks clean, no excess smoke from exhaust and there's nothing else obvious presenting itself. I’ve done a fair amount of research about this through the forums and can see that its likely to be two things:

1) Faulty oil pressure sensor (best case scenario)
2) O rings gone on the oil pan
3) Sludge build up blocking the oil pick up
4) Actual low oil pressure due to worn engine

Clearly, I’m hoping for option number one… I’ve bought an oil pressure gauge to check the actual readings on idle and at revs, that’s arriving soon so will shed some light on the sensor and give me a bit more info on the actual pressure readings.

The second point seems like the most likely given the amount of posts about this issue, the only thing is that the previous owner apparently changed these around 25k miles so Its seems a little strange that they would fail so quickly unless they have moved or deteriorated rapidly.

Third cause seems like it could be likely also, again it seems that dropping the oil pan is the only way to really check this, I did think of an engine flush but given the mileage (125k) I think it will just cause more issues than solve anything. The PCV system has apparently been changed but ill do the glove test hopefully tonight to see if there’s any pressure issues. anyway, I’m thinking it may be a blockage in the oil pick up which presents itself once the car is warm and then when shut off it settles hence the warning not coming on from the outset. Any thoughts?

Fourth… I’m hoping this isn’t the case as I don’t fancy changing out an engine again (had a Nissan 180sx which went through 2 engines - buy cheap buy twice). I ran a compression test to get an idea of whether there’s anything going on internally and gained the following results (WOT, about 6-8 cranks, car was warm but as I said I can’t drive it so perhaps not as hot as it could be):

1 – 140
2 – 135
3 – 150
4 – 155
5 – 140
6 – 150

Seems quite low to me but fairly consistent. Could this be a case of carbon deposits and once the engine has some fully synthetic and a few oil changes I’ll see more pressure? Any thoughts on these results? I want to keep going with the car rather than just sell it on for spares but the phrase throwing good money after bad does come to mind…

I’ve also looked into dropping the oil pan and despite searching numerous threads I can’t seem to find a good ‘how to’; some people say you need to drop the subframe on the passenger side, others than you can jack the engine up, others that you need to cut the subframe tabs, some very rare others seem to say it just comes out? Whilst I don’t mind getting under a car when it comes to subframes and unbolting them it makes me a bit uneasy… Has anyone done the work and could give me a few pointers? I guess when I’m under there it will make more sense but I’m not sure what needs to be removed/moved in order to gain access and don't want to randomly unbolt things ideally. Alternatively, do you think its better to bite the bullet and get a local independent to do the work?

Thanks for any input and ill be sure it update this in due course with my journey as it really irritates me when you see a thread, they have the same issues, go through some fault finding and then just disappear with no outcome!

Dom
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Old Jun 3rd, 2020, 09:50   #2
SwissXC90
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There's one other possible reason:
Wrong oil viscosity.

If the oil is too thin you'll loose pressure when warm.
So try an oil change (and oil filter change) with the correct oil.
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Old Jun 3rd, 2020, 10:33   #3
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Thanks - I’ll give that a go after checking the pressure with a manual reader to make sure I don’t knacker the engine. I hadn’t thought of that though...
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Old Jun 4th, 2020, 13:33   #4
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Any other thoughts on the compression and removing the oil pan process?
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Old Jun 7th, 2020, 21:26   #5
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I checked the pcv system with the glove method and there was a vacuum as hoped for.

I put a mechanical oil pressure gauge on - pita to get to by the way, it’s a 22mm head which I managed to gain access to in-between the subframe and oil pan with a long spanner then removed the intercooler hose to gain access to it.

Anyway Connected up the pressure gauge and from start up got a reading of 50psi, as it warmed up it went to 30psi, at 4000rpm it was around 80psi-90psi... so well with the Volvo min of 14.5psi for idle and 50.8psi at 4000rpm.

I thought it was the sensor but then as engine warmed up the pressure slowly dropped to 20psi, when revved the pressure raised back up but on idle it just kept falling slowly until I switched it off at about 10psi.

Any ideas???
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Old Jun 9th, 2020, 12:36   #6
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Genuine Volvo filter and some fully synthetic oil has arrived so ill get it changed and see if that makes any difference...

Its quiet on here... Maybe my post was too long!
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Old Jun 15th, 2020, 00:43   #7
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So I’ve changed the filter (volvo) and oil for some fully synthetic. The oil filter looked pretty dirty and I could see some small flakes of carbon tucked away in the fins. Refilled with oil, started up and again pressure was fine, then slowly it started to drop again, it raised when revved but then on idle it started to near 10psi and I shut it off...

I’m now thinking that the issue is likely to be a blocked oil pick up pipe so it’s time to take the sump off...
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Old Jul 9th, 2020, 15:29   #8
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Im going to take off the oil pan and see if theres anything untoward there. Will also be replacing the o rings as a matter of course.

I have now got a VIDA and looking through the guide on there it looks like a complicated job! From all the research I'e done it doesn't look like I can get around getting an engine crane to support the engine whilst the subframe is dropped in order to get the oil pan off.

Once i get some time im going to plug it into the vida and see what readings/faults etc are showing up.
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Old Jul 27th, 2020, 16:42   #9
DomF1
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Default Removing subframe

As an update - I worked on getting the oil pan off this weekend... One of the oil cooler torx bolts was completely rounded so that took the best part of the day to loosen up and get off. The pan has definetly been dropped before and I could see reminents of black gasket sealant on the pan bolts so I have a feeling the anerobic sealant wasnt using and perhaps it has leaked into the pan and gotten stuck in the oil pick up pipe creating the low oil pressure once warm, just a theory though I may well be proved wrong once its off.

I'm now lowering the subframe to get the pan out, engine held from above with an engine hoist. I have been really cautious with removing the bolts due to all the stories of them shearing, rears loosened easily, but the front bolts were on very tight - I got them moving and then after a few turns they stuck again - took a lot of effort with a breaker bar to move it slightly and it came along with the loudest crack each time... I got too worried about snapping the bolt so chickened out and have covered them in plus gas and will keep topping that up for a few days...

Any tips for removing the subframe? Maybe jacking up the subframe so there's no load (although that didn't seem to make any difference), or maybe wind all the other bolts out and then just work on this one or perhaps wind all the others in and focus on passenger side?

Any ideas?
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Old Jul 27th, 2020, 18:35   #10
john langrick
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Hi, although it was not me who discovered this. My indie had the pleasure of dropping the sub frame to replace my engine d5 03.

The front nearside subframe bolt snapped.

This bolt does not screw into a 'blind' and hence somewhat protected hole. The top of this bolt is exposed to the elements and hence mine had seized and had to be drilled out.

Had I known I would have dribbled penetrating oil on the bolt hole from the top. It could have helped.

So my suggestion is to look at the front nearside subframe bolt, look above it and spray liberally befor attempting to remove the bolt.

Hope this helps.
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