I recently purchased a 2001 jaguar, runs great other than check engine light on due to an o2 sensor. I changed the oil, not knowing what kind of oil that was run in it previously and after asking around for advice from several car guys I went with castrol 10-30 full synthetic. Now after the car runs for awhile then come to a stop, the low pressure light comes on while the engine is at an idle. The engine makes no noise and still runs perfect. I just parked the car as I'm scared to drive it in fear of doing engine damage due to low oil pressure until I have time to put a manual gauge on it to check true pressure. Any advice input or opinions are greatly appreciated, thanks.

 

I ran into a similar problem on my '02 V6. On mine, the switch was at fault. Details here:

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=83426

Access was pretty lousy. Before you go through all the work of rigging a mechanical test gauge, I'd suggest just replacing the switch and see what happens. Might save you a lot of work. With any luck, you'd only have to get in there once, not twice.

 

Thanks I'll try that first

 

Well we have a lack of details again? The most critical bit of information is how many miles are on the engine?

Change the switch first but most likely you just have normal bearing wear in your engine. If you are worried about it you can try a heavy weight oil or if you can do your own work change the rod bearings.

The rod bearings take most of the wear and you probably have copper showing. It's completely normal. Remember there is little to no load on the engine at idle and I have driven cars that do this for many thousands of miles with no problems.

Be sure and avoid running the engine hard when it's cold. Let it warm up before driving it hard. If you don't drive it hard then you should be alright.

If you do some searches you will find there are not any people destroying their V-6 engines because of low oil pressure.
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These engines are not known to have oil pressure problems irrespective of age. As already mentioned, it might just be the sensor.

FWIW- the owners manual lists the correct type and grade of oil. 10W30 is acceptable in your type of climate but 5W30 is preferred. No requirement to use synthetic.

 

5W30 should work best.

 

Thanks for all the advice. The engine has 170,000 on it and runs like a top. This problem only started after I changed the oil over to synthetic 10w30. I don't know what kind of oil was used in it before I tried to contact the previous owner to see what was used in it before but no luck contacting him. I always crank the car and let it warm up before I leave for work. The light only comes on after driving for awhile then coming to idle at stops.

 

Hi there,
I have the opposite problem - no oil pressure light or low pressure warning - but when I checked the dipstick there was hardly any oil showing! I put in virtually a 5 litre can of oil in to bring it up to show on the dipstick, and yet had had no indication that there was a problem. Car had been hardly used during the previous year - done about 500 miles in all, and the oil looks clean and has been changed not that long ago. Engine has 90K miles on it, and a 3 litre petrol 6 cylinder machine. Any thoughts?

 

Well, given that the engine oil capacity for your car is around 6.5 liters, or 7 quarts, having almost nothing showing on the dipstick kind of makes sense, no?

 

The car doesn't have a sensor that's much use - if it says low oil the engine is probably already seizing

Rely on the dipstick!

 

The 5 litres of oil added was in addition to what was already in there after the last oil and filter change (500 miles beforehand) - i.e. oil at base of dipstick when I started with the car after it had had that oil change, then added 5 litres of oil, and it then came up on the dipstick. Engine runs fine, car drives fine. Just odd - I am wondering if the garage that did the oil change only put in a standard car's worth of oil in the first place? Hard to say for sure. I am using a different garage these days, anyway, so hopefully when it next goes in for a service they can check it all for me. But as I say, the car drives fine and nothing odd at all, no warnings or odd noises.

 

It's a good idea to get into the habit of checking the engine oil level weekly. If oil seems to be 'disappearing', check for leaks.