Loss of oil pressure in my 2007 Burb

[vtx1800sba]

Today I was driving my 2007 Chev Suburban LT (5.3) when all of a sudden this alarm went off and the DIC text read 'engine oil pressure low stop engine now'. My Burb has never once dripped a single drop of oil or any engine issues. I pulled of the highway at a convenience store and added some oil (wasn't that low to begin with). I started the Burb back up and oil pressure went just past 40 where it most always is. I drove it down the street only to watch the pressure gauge fall and fall until the alarm went off again. Drove home and parked.

I just got the Burb completely detailed yesterday. I mean evrything. Even sgteam cleaned the engine bay. Trying to sell it. Has 152k on it.

Any thoughts as to what is happening with the oil pressure?

 

[THE YETI]

my guess is when they cleaned the engine bay, some sensor or something got messed up...

 

[fire730]

I had to drop the oil pan and clean out the pickup screen on an 07 with about 90k miles for a customer. It had a bunch of sludge and crap clogging it up and causing the same problem. The owner wasn't very good with keeping up with their oil changes.

Are you the original owner of yours?

But like SS said it could be caused by the steam cleaning.

 

[vtx1800sba]

I had to drop the oil pan and clean out the pickup screen on an 07 with about 90k miles for a customer. It had a bunch of sludge and crap clogging it up and causing the same problem. The owner wasn't very good with keeping up with their oil changes.

Are you the original owner of yours?

But like SS said it could be caused by the steam cleaning.

I am the second owner as the Burb was a program vehicle at GM. I got it with 14k miles on it. I'm pretty good about regular oil changes to. Thing is with my Burb, it has always used a little oil between changes. Always. I've had it checked stem to stern and no plausible explanation. No blue smoke, nothin. Just talked to my partner's shop foreman. He's thinking new oil pump and sending unit. Found both on gmparts.com. Not too expensive just a pain to drop the oil pan etc.

 

[fire730]

If I remember correctly it took less than an hour to get the pan down so it's worth checking out the screen to keep from killing the motor.

 

[vtx1800sba]

If I remember correctly it took less than an hour to get the pan down so it's worth checking out the screen to keep from killing the motor.

Thanks Kevin. What all will be in the way of dropping the pan? Cross member? Drive shaft?

 

[fire730]

It's been a while since I did it but if I remember correctly it does have a crossmember that just bolts on underneath the pan. I don't remember it being difficult at all but it has been MANY jobs ago.

 

[vtx1800sba]

It's been a while since I did it but if I remember correctly it does have a crossmember that just bolts on underneath the pan. I don't remember it being difficult at all but it has been MANY jobs ago.

Ok guys we replaced the engine oil pressure sensor. This forum has been darned handy to as we easily located the sensor from information derived from the forum. But, even with the new sensor replaced, same thing. Start up the burb, oil pressure goes right up. Take off down the road, and you can watch the gauge fall. The alarm goes off and I drive back to the shop. Engine running fine. No clanking or anything. What the hell is it?

 

[Sheriff]

..... you can watch the gauge fall. The alarm goes off and I drive back to the shop. Engine running fine. No clanking or anything. What the hell is it?

Sounds like low oil pressure. Low pressure will still keep the engine lubricated

somewhat, but I wouldn't drive it too much. Might need an oil pump.

 

[llllljrlllll]

Let me put my 2 cents in. This happened to me, the dealer explanation was that I was using a cheap oil filter, so they replaced it with a delco filter. I don't know if that was true, but it hasn't happen to me again. So i'm assuming they might have some thought into that.

 

[vtx1800sba]

Let me put my 2 cents in. This happened to me, the dealer explanation was that I was using a cheap oil filter, so they replaced it with a delco filter. I don't know if that was true, but it hasn't happen to me again. So i'm assuming they might have some thought into that.

Success! Swapped out the oil pressure sensor. Same issue as before. Read some more on the forum; asked a few more questions. Dropped the oil (time for a change anyway). Mechanic who leases space down from my unit talked about the oil filter. So that got swapped out with the old oil anyway. New oil in; new AC oil filter. No more low oil pressure. Will see if the problem is solved by a few days of running. Thanks guys for the input. You helped me out

 

[breighard]

This exact same scenario happened on my 2007 suburban. I started to notice oil pressure falling off periodically. 1 week later, it falls off to zero and message come up to turn off engine. Waited several minutes, turned truck back on and had 40psi. Drove home several miles but pressure again falling off by the time I hit my driveway. All signs pointed to the oil sending unit according to two dealers I spoke with. (There cost about $400) I noticed the post on this site that said change your oil filter. I was about due for a oil/filter change anyway, so that is what I did. Problem Solved! Running just fine for the last month.

 

[nosrndr]

I am new to the forum and searching this topic. Have a 2008 Suburban. Bought new. 145K miles. Has been a good car for the most part. Had to have lifters replaced by dealer several months ago. Loud tapping sound with flashing check engine light. ANYWAY.....Driving home from a ski trip tonight, a 4 hour drive out of the mountains. Weather had been around zero, now warmed to 20. While on interstate, I got the dreaded "low oil pressure turn off engine now" warning. Naturally this happened with NO exits, NO cell signal, 20 degrees and a car full of kids. I turned off the engine, waited a minute or two, and restarted. Oil pressure popped to +40 and held for a few miles, then started to drop. I drove to a convenience store and bought a couple quarts of 5w30. Added one. Pressure popped to +40, then held between 20-30 for remainder of
trip home (another 130 miles). Got home OK and will make calls tomorrow. Any advice is GREATLY appreciated. First check in the morning will be the oil level. Note: All service has always been done by Chevrolet Dealer.
Many thanks!!

 

[Goodinblack]

Sounds like what Jacobs truck is doing. ^^^^

 

[livingez_123]

or a bad O ring on the pickup tube.

 

[nosrndr]

So I let the car sit in the garage overnight and checked the oil this morning and the level is good. While my indicator says I have 40% oil life left, I don't put much faith in that. If I read this thread correctly, I am going to proceed in this order with my troubleshooting....

1) Change the oil and put in new filter.
2) Check/clean the pick up screen.
3) Check for possible bad o-ring on the pick-up tube.
3) replace oil pump and/or sending unit.

I am guessing that I have these listed in order of
lowest to highest cost too.....

Let me know if I am off base. Thanks to all for their input!!

 

[07Burb]

So I let the car sit in the garage overnight and checked the oil this morning and the level is good. While my indicator says I have 40% oil life left, I don't put much faith in that. If I read this thread correctly, I am going to proceed in this order with my troubleshooting....

1) Change the oil and put in new filter.
2) Check/clean the pick up screen.
3) Check for possible bad o-ring on the pick-up tube.
3) replace oil pump and/or sending unit.

I am guessing that I have these listed in order of
lowest to highest cost too.....

Let me know if I am off base. Thanks to all for their input!!

This sounds about right and if your issue is anything like mine the oil change will fix it until around the "50% oil life" spot or slightly lower. Several months back I had to have my lifters replaced as well due to lifter failure and ever since then I can't go too much past the 3k mark between oil changes. I've driven about 6500 miles since the lifter issue happened back in June. I got your same symptoms about 3300 miles after the lifter replacement and was about to do an oil change anyway. After a lot of troubleshooting I stumbled across this thread and had the shop go ahead and do an oil change. I prefer to do these on my own and had planned on it the following weekend but I didn't have a choice. The oil change fixed the issue. Well fast forward to last week. It had been 3100 miles since that event and I was going to be changing the oil this last weekend when the weather actually warmed up. Well the issue arose again while the wife was running errands. The fix? Oil change.

So Friday I bought 6 oil filters to stock up on my supplies and over the next few months I'm going to change my oil once a month or so and each time I'm going to open up the oil filter to see what kind of shape it's in as it's my theory that something more significant may be going on causing the oil filter to fail and therefore causing the oil pump not to operate correctly. We shall see what the end result is but I'm preparing for the fact that I may be putting a new motor in my burb at some point.

 

[Goodinblack]

You know all this seems so horrible. My 1996 Tahoe had 198,000 when I sold it.

I don't have the same faith for the 5.3 afm anymore.

 

[07Burb]

You know all this seems so horrible. My 1996 Tahoe had 198,000 when I sold it.

I don't have the same faith for the 5.3 anymore.

Agreed....Up until about 9 months ago I was pretty confident in the 5.3 but that confidence level has plummeted since then. Through my research I've seen similar issues with the 6.0 as well. So it's not just the 5.3. It's this generation of LS based motors.

 

[Goodinblack]

I think I may be flipping mine before 125