Buick/Olds: 1996 Buick Park Avenue loss of oil pressure, buick park avenue, oxygen sensors

Question
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Followup To
Question -
My 1996 Buick Park Avenue  with a 3.8 motor has lost oil pressure.  It has synthetic oil in it and has been changed regularly as per manufacturer's recommendations.  We've changed the sending unit.  No luck!  We replaced the oil pump and since we were in there any way , we changed the timing chain.  The pressure is better but still not where is was.  What next?
Answer -
Are you relying on the dash gage for your oil pressure reading or did you install a KNOWN GOOD external pressure gage to see what pressure you have ?.

Never ever trust a dash gage.

What other work of anykind was performed on the vehicle prior to this problem ?.



Thomas

Thomas,

Thank you for your prompt reply.  We've replaced (last year) both oxygen sensors.  Other than that we've never had anything done to the car other than routine maintenance. My husband is a stickler for maintaining the car. The car sounds great and runs well, has never made a noise whatsoever.  It has 150 thousand miles on it (my husband's Le Sabre has nearly 300 thousand on it) and was running fine when the oil pressure light came on as I pulled into the drive.  When you rev the engine, the pressure climbs.  After the current repairs it's showing above the red line but not much.  It was showing 40-50 pounds before.  We had the pressure tested but it showed the gage was accurate. The mechanic said it visibly was not pushing much oil up into the engine before the repairs were made.   Should we have it tested again after the repairs?


Answer
ABSOLUTELY have it retested. IF you only get a slight increase in pressure and it is NOT close to factory specs, You most likely have excessive clearance within the crankshaft and main engine bearings of which will require removal of the oil pan for visual inspection.


let me know.


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