Lost all oil pressure while driving

Tiny
DAVID TANT
  • MEMBER
  • 1999 FORD RANGER
  • 3.0L
  • 6 CYL
  • 2WD
  • AUTOMATIC
  • 121,000 MILES
I was driving and lost all oil pressure. The check engine light came on and it lost power. It does not smoke and I drained the oil to look for metal there was not any. I have been told by a mechanic that cranked it for two seconds and said it needed a motor because it spun a bearing. I have been told by several other shade tree mechanics to change the oil pump. What do you think is wrong?
Tuesday, July 3rd, 2018 AT 4:52 PM

1 Reply

Tiny
STEVE W.
  • MECHANIC
  • 13,573 POSTS
A somewhat common issue in the 3.0 is for the gear that drives the oil pump and cam synchronizer to fail. That stops the oil pump from driving and you lose pressure. You can easily check that by removing the camshaft sensor and seeing if the rotor under it turns when you crank the engine. Then to see if it is pump failure you can use a drill to spin the oil pump drive shaft with a real oil pressure gauge installed in the sender location. No pressure means a failed pump. They are not that hard to change on the two wheel drive version, you unbolt the engine mounts to lift the engine for clearance and unbolt the pan. Remove the pump and the intermediate drive shaft. Reverse the process to replace the pump, do not forget to put some Vaseline or similar in the pump to ensure it primes, then prime it with the drill before you try starting it.

The issue then becomes if you do have oil pressure when the shaft is spun, did the sudden failure cause bearing problems? That is a hard one to say without actually hearing it turn over and run. It could easily have spun a bearing or just scuffed them a lot. The loss of power is what suggests that. It would not be that hard to check for that while the oil pan is off.

My suggestion, pull the cam sensor and check if it turns. If not then pull the oil pan and check for bearing damage. If no damage pull the oil pump and inspect it (the iron from the drive gear went through it) Then proceed based on what you find.
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Tuesday, July 3rd, 2018 AT 6:13 PM

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