Good lord, I hate cars.
And nothing on earth would please me more than to be able to ride a bicycle to work, but here I am, fucking with a car again.
The Sploder was a great ride all it’s life, and I can walk right out there right now and it will start. But the brakes and etc. are just too much work to repair, and it’s become a horrible rustbucket.
The Escape I got handed down from the wife is a good ride but it’s started to lose oil pressure. I’m still not sure why, it happens when it’s hot, and some of that is counterintuitive. I have checked the pressure and at idle it’s perfect, once it’s warm the light flickers at stoplights. I changed the sensor, same thing. I changed the filter, same thing. I’m about to drop the oil pan and see if there’s something obstructing the intake, but it would seem as if it would work better when the oil was thin, if that was the case. Bugger all. I can’t afford a car payment, and really don’t want one right now.
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I ran several cars much longer than I should have, until a couple of years ago. I figured out that at my age, it was time to finally spend a bit of our portfolio, so I bought a new VW Passat, TDI, 6-speed manual, which I dearly love. Three months later, I got a 2013 Nissan Leaf, which I love just as much; it’s getting replaced with a 2016 Leaf tomorrow.
It’s now fairly rare for me to visit the NAPA store, where I have an account and used to spend a bunch of $$$ to keep the junk running. I like that a lot!
Bummer. Try some 40 wt in the Escape for the oil pressure (old school).
Man, it seems the inability of the pump to pressurize the system might be due to the vanes bypassing the thinner fluid.
The internet is a great friend on these things
http://www.justanswer.com/ford/19bdb-ford-escape-oil-pressure-comes-sec.html#re.v/417/
dunno. Had an old ford that did not keep pressure up when warm at idle. I figured it was the mains as that was a sign in older cars. One thing that can help is heavier straight weight oil. Although it might be harder to start when cold. Sounds like a trade in candidate. And I did see you did not want payments. And if you trade it you could get more problems than you have.
I would like to not have to deal with cars, but horses are more temperamental and I have ridden bikes in the weather. Not something I would like to do daily.
Good luck on finding the issue.
I’ll bet its the pump or clogged screen. Might have bearing damage if not caught very early. I understand not wanting to buy another car, we decided to sell our 01 escape after it started to aggravate constantly. When the fuel pump quit while the wife was at work she said enough, lets look for a replacement. We found a 13 escape with a year of factory warranty left for 16k out the door. It has so much electronics that I’ll probably never attempt my own repairs any more. That might be a good thing with my deteriorating spine.
Good luck
The screen was clear, I took the oil pan off last night. I put a pressure gauge on it and it read 80 psi. A couple guys on forums are saying the pressure switch might be crying wolf, and maybe all I need is to move to a higher viscosity oil since the engine has some wear on it. I’m going to install a mechanical gauge and see.
Try a 20W50 weight oil. I was told once that anything with a 50 in it was certified at 100 degrees centigrade where the lower weights were not.
Yeah, if the gauge says 80 psi when the light’s flickering, the light’s just lying.
(Or there’s a really weird intermittent blockage right at the sensor, I guess?)
Welcome to my world. Recent repairs all done by me….
2001 Explorer, 270k miles: fuel pump, radiator and hoses, vacuum lines, all front ball joints, rear axle bearings, new inertia switch, blower motor, blower motor speed resistor, front 4×4 wheel hub assemblies, tail gate latch handle, replaced moon roof drain tubes that had turned to mush, radio antenna cable that went bad… WTF???
1999 Stang GT, 200k miles: new intake manifold, injector o-rings, steering rack bushings, aftermarket adjustable caster-camber plates, fuel pump, fuel tank filler tube gasket, vacuum hoses…..
I could go on but I’m too exhausted to think about it.
One thing I will note. I didn’t have a fuel line quick disconnect tool big enough to remove the fuel line attached to the fuel rail on the Stang. I live out in the sticks so I don’t like to drive to town if’n I don’t have too, so, I sliced a chunk out the top of a Folgers coffee can cover, wrapped it around the fuel line and used it as a disconnect tool. I popped the top on a brewskie after that Field Fix.
I’d hate to part with either of these vehicles ’cause the seats have conformed perfectly to my ass over the years.
I was thinking screen, but the next step, as you’re doing, is a mechanical gauge… Hope it’s just a bad sensor!
I presume you put a t wrench on the oil pump mounting bolts? Can you hook up to the ECU chip with a laptop app and read the oil pressure trace at various loads? Old trick for mouse motors in boats (constant hi rpms need more flow than pressure) was solved by changing out hi-pressure pumps for hi-volume pumps. Raised service life of MercChev 350s from 1500 hrs to 2500. Lab some oil. $30 testkit is cheep insurance.
Bottom line: Escape may not have the umph for your long 80mph commutes. May be tired before it’s time.
Pump is around crankshaft, have to yank engine to do.
that sucks. Sometimes having engineers and time is a bad idea. I had a cousin once that maintained having car engineers disassemble their designs would be a good idea.
We are way past good natured Ford Vs Toyota rib-jabbing and into commiseration. Last week I finally “fixed” the Brakes/TRAC/VSC/ABS lights that were all a solid “on” on the dashboard. I pulled the ABS codes and all the diagnostic paths for those codes. Tracked the problem to a faulty wire in the wiring harness connecting the fuse block to the skid control computer. Funny thing is, all those light would normally only be lit when the car was cool and go off if I restarted the car (cycling the computer) when it was warm. An hour later with the multimeter failed to find any wire that was failing. I guessed correctly that the failure is where the good wire connect at the junction. I stuck a safety pin into it and put it all back together. It works now and I could get the state required inspection to pass. All warning lights are off. First time it has been working in over a year.
On a side note, I switched to full synthetic oil last change and my mileage increased from 18.6 to 21.6.
And I am still thinking screen. The screen is only plugged after the engine is operating. When you shut it off, the debris settles again into the pan.
Yep. I yanked the pan and disassembled it and cleaned it, took off the intake, it only happens warm. Intend to add mechanical gauge Saturday to further diagnose. Appreciate the good thoughts.
A good guage can be a god send from time to time.
Back in the 70’s I had a car that did not want to start. Points, condenser wire and plugs still no go.
Added some gas just because and boom it took off. Seems wire to ground on tank was not working so it indicated 1/2 a tank all the time.
Oh well, free tune up.
That reminds me, Paul, of my old ’76 Mercedes (a 300D).
At one point, fiddling around with things for an unrelated issue, I found that … my battery ground cable was literally not connected to anything on the far end, because of corrosion.
(This was not obvious because the chassis connection that had rusted away was under the battery pan.)
I never did figure out how the hell that thing actually managed to start [the glow plugs are a 30A load on an OM617 engine]…
But it was starting up just fine, with a floating ground, because vooodoo.
(As Wikipedia says, it must have been charge accumulation in the positive cable, I guess.
And once the car was running, of course, the alternator was handling everything.
Needless to say, before I eventually got rid of that car, I’d replaced both the ground and the main alternator connection to the battery…)
When did the issue start? Before or after your last oil change?
Just wunderin”
Yes. It happened in the middle of an oil change cycle, I changed the oil, and it’;s still happening. It gets a mechanical oil pressure gauge today, and when I determine what that says, I move on to the next step.
THen it is a bearing issue, most likely. Fill it with 10-w-40 and trade it…..
Thre is a chevy trailblazer down the street from me for $5999 in GREAT shape….I bet you can get it for $5K even.
No bearing issue. Yanked the pan and used a dial indicator on the bearings. Trade in value less than the tires I just put on it. Think I’m going to keep it and yank engine and replace oil pump in the spring. Trailblazer, huh? I was looking at one of those at CarMax. Maybe I have to come look at it.
Og,
It may also be a weak pressure relief spring that returns flow to the pan.
When the oil is cold/thick, the resistance of the oil to flow is enough to make the sensor happy.
Oil warms up, spring isnt strong enough too close all the way, pressure is low enough to flicker the light. Or there is a small piece of debris on the seat.
I am assuming that the light goes out when the engine speeds up…
Trail blazers have a not so good front end. Although that is easier to fix than the problem the escape has. Mainly because the escape problem is still in the figure it out stage.