2012 Chevy Tahoe low oil pressure/ shop says I need new engine!

Aburns70 · Dec 22, 2023

New to the site, first time posting but have been reading many of the other posts about the low oil pressure warning everyone has experienced.

Please bear with me as I am not a car person at all.

Situation: 2012 Chevy Tahoe 150k miles. Wife was driving it about 20 miles to our sons appointment, when ‘low oil pressure turn vehicle off’ warning came on. She drove it about 5-10 miles to the destination then turned vehicle off. I met her over there checked to see if there was any oil leaks, there was none, and to make sure there was oil, which there was. It had probably gone over 1k miles over recommended oil change. We had it towed to a shop near our house, we just moved and are new to the area and didn’t have a mechanic that we knew so tried this one spot with good reviews.

They said that it was probably the oil pressure sensor. I saw many people saying that was the culprit online so just assumed it would be a fairly straight forward fix. The quoted me 1k to diagnose, change sensor and give the vehicle an oil change, I felt that was fairly steep but like I said, I am no car person. So they went a head did the fixes and we picked up the vehicle on Friday the 15th. Drove the vehicle home, about 1 mile, no issues. Sunday I took the vehicle to the store about 10-15mile around trip and after the vehicle warmed up, I noticed I was getting less than 20psi on the gauge. So Monday morning I wanted to drive it to work which was about 20ish miles away. it was about 20 degrees out that morning, started up around 40psi, let engine warm for about 10 minutes, when I came back out it was down to 20, and progressively kept getting lower as I drove, until the ‘low oil pressure shut vehicle off’ warning came on again 5miles from work. Had it towed back to the shop, and it was there a couple days before getting a call today from them. They said that the oil was shiny, they tried going to 10w-30 oil to see if that helped, drove it about 7 miles and once the engine got up to temp, pressure dropped again. The mechanic told me that because the oil was shiny and it can’t keep pressure that the bearings were too warned down and that the only option was to rebuild the engine, and that it would cost in the ballpark around 5k to do that, but they wouldn’t rebuild the engine and we would have to find someone else to do that.

I have no idea what to do, would love to hear if anyone else has any tips or suggestions, or if I should look to get a second opinion.I can’t really afford an engine rebuild at this time, and not sure what to do.

Thank you in advance!

strutaeng · Dec 22, 2023

$1000 for an oil pressure sender!!! WTF, I'm in the wrong job!

Sounds like they should have checked pressure before condemning the oil pressure sender, which obviously wasn't the problem.

If you don't mind getting a little dirty, buying a harbor freight oil pressure mechanical gauge and climbing on the engine bay and hooking it up, that will be the best way to diagnose this.

Aburns70 · Dec 22, 2023

strutaeng said:
$1000 for an oil pressure sender!!! WTF, I'm in the wrong job!

Sounds like they should have checked pressure before condemning the oil pressure sender, which obviously wasn't the problem.

If you don't mind getting a little dirty, buying a harbor freight oil pressure mechanical gauge and climbing on the engine bay and hooking it up, that will be the best way to diagnose this.

That’s what I was kind of wondering, the engine temp never overheated, and I never heard anything out of the ordinary from the engine noise, and performance hadn’t changed. So I wondered if I could manually check the engine pressure to see what it was actually reading, versus what the pressure sensor was reading.also wondering if they replaced the sensor but not the filter.

strutaeng · Dec 22, 2023

Aburns70 said:
That’s what I was kind of wondering, the engine temp never overheated, and I never heard anything out of the ordinary from the engine noise, and performance hadn’t changed. So I wondered if I could manually check the engine pressure to see what it was actually reading, versus what the pressure sensor was reading.also wondering if they replaced the sensor but not the filter.

Yeah, although at this point it sounds like you do have legitimate oil pressure since you got a new sender.

I would still check with the mechanical guage.

I don't know much of the gmt900, but does this vehicle have that AFM/DoD stuff? I know those require higher oil pressure to operate that system.

I ran the original 4.3 on my 99 Silverado NBS with like 7-8 psi of oil pressure for like 1.5 years. I switched to the heaviest oil they sell, 50 weight and got an additional 2-3 psi at idle (down from like 5 psi.) Eventually I retired the truck and swapped the engine.

Look at some different threads about guys in similar situations, as far as your options and costs. There are a few recent threads...

BG1988 · Dec 22, 2023

Aburns70 said:
New to the site, first time posting but have been reading many of the other posts about the low oil pressure warning everyone has experienced.

Please bear with me as I am not a car person at all.

Situation: 2012 Chevy Tahoe 150k miles. Wife was driving it about 20 miles to our sons appointment, when ‘low oil pressure turn vehicle off’ warning came on. She drove it about 5-10 miles to the destination then turned vehicle off. I met her over there checked to see if there was any oil leaks, there was none, and to make sure there was oil, which there was. It had probably gone over 1k miles over recommended oil change. We had it towed to a shop near our house, we just moved and are new to the area and didn’t have a mechanic that we knew so tried this one spot with good reviews.

They said that it was probably the oil pressure sensor. I saw many people saying that was the culprit online so just assumed it would be a fairly straight forward fix. The quoted me 1k to diagnose, change sensor and give the vehicle an oil change, I felt that was fairly steep but like I said, I am no car person. So they went a head did the fixes and we picked up the vehicle on Friday the 15th. Drove the vehicle home, about 1 mile, no issues. Sunday I took the vehicle to the store about 10-15mile around trip and after the vehicle warmed up, I noticed I was getting less than 20psi on the gauge. So Monday morning I wanted to drive it to work which was about 20ish miles away. it was about 20 degrees out that morning, started up around 40psi, let engine warm for about 10 minutes, when I came back out it was down to 20, and progressively kept getting lower as I drove, until the ‘low oil pressure shut vehicle off’ warning came on again 5miles from work. Had it towed back to the shop, and it was there a couple days before getting a call today from them. They said that the oil was shiny, they tried going to 10w-30 oil to see if that helped, drove it about 7 miles and once the engine got up to temp, pressure dropped again. The mechanic told me that because the oil was shiny and it can’t keep pressure that the bearings were too warned down and that the only option was to rebuild the engine, and that it would cost in the ballpark around 5k to do that, but they wouldn’t rebuild the engine and we would have to find someone else to do that.

I have no idea what to do, would love to hear if anyone else has any tips or suggestions, or if I should look to get a second opinion.I can’t really afford an engine rebuild at this time, and not sure what to do.

Thank you in advance!

the oil pickup tube o-ring has failed and is bleeding oil pressure they would have stole your perfectly good engine..

Aburns70 · Dec 22, 2023

BG1988 said:
the oil pickup tube o-ring has failed and is bleeding oil pressure they would have stole your perfectly good engine..

Is this a job I could do myself or something to leave to a mechanic? As far as the metal in the oil/shiny oil, is that something to be concerned about?

BG1988 · Dec 22, 2023

Yeah if you have the tools you can
oil pan will need to come off though

also recommend replacing the 8 o rings on the vlom as well

j91z28d1 · Dec 22, 2023

wait.. is it knocking? do you have the truck home so you can pull the dip stick and wipe the oil off with a white paper towel and see if there's any metal on it? you can test the o ring in the pan with the add extra oil trick or if you can find a steep driveway or something park on face downwards. the extra oil covers the o ring and if it's bad the pressure will come back up.

if it's not knocking or tapping when the low pressure light comes on. it's kinda hard to believe it's actually at zero. sadly not being a car guy at all, this is a bit of a deep end to jump into. 1000$ for the sensor is just criminal. they probably used some local parts place sensor, not a oem gm which is only like 50$. so you can't even rule out it being a bad sensor cause none oem can be unreliable even when new. they definitely could have not replaced or cleaned the screen under it also.

trying to think of the easy way to check the pressure with a mechanical gauge.. huh. it's kinda hard to get to where the sensor is and it doesn't have low pressure till it's hot. there's a adapter that replaces the oil filter, it's the easiest one to use, but being you gotta drive the truck to get it hot it's not good for it.

at this point you might just find another shop and ask specifically if they can put a mechanical gauge on it to confirm and actually walk you into the shop and show you. don't trust anyone.

Aburns70 · Dec 22, 2023

j91z28d1 said:
wait.. is it knocking? do you have the truck home so you can pull the dip stick and wipe the oil off with a white paper towel and see if there's any metal on it? you can test the o ring in the pan with the add extra oil trick or if you can find a steep driveway or something park on face downwards. the extra oil covers the o ring and if it's bad the pressure will come back up.

if it's not knocking or tapping when the low pressure light comes on. it's kinda hard to believe it's actually at zero. sadly not being a car guy at all, this is a bit of a deep end to jump into. 1000$ for the sensor is just criminal. they probably used some local parts place sensor, not a oem gm which is only like 50$. so you can't even rule out it being a bad sensor cause none oem can be unreliable even when new. they definitely could have not replaced or cleaned the screen under it also.

trying to think of the easy way to check the pressure with a mechanical gauge.. huh. it's kinda hard to get to where the sensor is and it doesn't have low pressure till it's hot. there's a adapter that replaces the oil filter, it's the easiest one to use, but being you gotta drive the truck to get it hot it's not good for it.

at this point you might just find another shop and ask specifically if they can put a mechanical gauge on it to confirm and actually walk you into the shop and show you. don't trust anyone.

Damn I really appreciate all the responses so far. I feel stupid for not speaking up when they where giving me the quote, because I had read online that it wasn’t to bad to replace the sensor just that it was blind and you had to pretty much lay on top of the engine.

So let me kind of see if I understand this alittle better. Since there is no oil loss or leaks anywhere , most likely losing pressure through the faulty o-ring/rings. I haven’t heard or noticed any knocking or engine noise out of the ordinary, and didn’t notice any decrease in performance other than the pressure gauge. This wouldn’t be an issue with an oil pump? I haven’t

When I checked the oil level when it first was having issues before we got it towed I didn’t notice any actual metal shavings, obviously the dipstick looked shiny, but to my untrained eye I couldn’t tell you if was bad or not.

j91z28d1 · Dec 22, 2023

don't take my word as official, just my experiences mixed with what I've read that makes sense to me. other guys here have way more experience with low oil pressure diagnostics over the web. in person with some tools is much easier haha.

so the o ring is on the suction side of the oil pump, if that o ring cracks it can suck air along with the oil, and you get foaming of the oil on the output side after the pump showing up at low pressure. it's a pretty common post around here at about the mileage you have, but others have changed it over low pressure and it not get much better. so it's a legitimate thing but not 100% you fix. that's why the test is to either add extra oil so it's above the o ring, or since the o ring is at the front of the engine, if you get on a steep hill nose down, oil will go forward and cover the ring to. I've not needed to do either test, but it's said you'll see the pressure come right up. you really should drain any extra oil you put in it back out thou after the test. high oil level can cause it's own set of problems.

I don't know how long these engines will run without oil pressure before they start to knock and tapping, but it should be tapping if it really has no oil pressure. heck, most ls engines tap a little with good oil pressure haha. so before you do anything drastic, I do think it's worth putting a real gauge on it. so the thing is, there's a little fine screen under the oil pressure sensor. because the sensor happens to be inline with the oil going to the active fuel management stuff and it needs to be extra clean for that. but if this screen gets clogged up, it's not blocking oil pressure to the main engine bearings, but it will block it from the pressure sensor and the AFM. what we don't know is if the shop replaced that screen or honestly if the sensor itself is even good.

it is what it is about the cost.. we all don't know what we know, and I've been taken before myself. drives me nuts but it happens. the gimmick is he probably billed you as if he had to remove the entire intake manifold to get to the sensor, which does make it eaiser and shop manual might even call for it. but it's not needed, I've replaced it both ways. it's not fun at all, but it can be done by laying across the engine with the right tools. but it's also very hard to replace that screen like that too since you can't really see what you're doing back there and you need a pick or a hook of some sort to pull it out.

any info on the maintenance history? the big question is usually was oil changes done every 4-5k miles, or by the much long change oil dash light. the long changes leads to gunk and sludge build up, which leads more clogging of that screen and the afm nightmare issues you'll read about if you search for afm.

so yeah, if you can test it either at the oil test port at the front of the engine with a mechanical gauge, or it hooked into the sensor port with the screen removed, you'll have a better idea what's really going on. how you get that done, I really don't know without knowing what you're comfortable with doing yourself.

I forgot to ask, once the oil pressure hits zero, how long do you have to have it off for the oil. pressure to come back up on restart. like 5 to 10mins or hours for the engine to cool completely?

Fless · Dec 22, 2023

The first thing to find out is if they cleaned or replaced the screen that's under the oil pressure sender.

ivin74 · Dec 22, 2023

Aburns70 said:
As far as the metal in the oil/shiny oil, is that something to be concerned about?

If you drove the suv long with low oil pressure you may have damaged it. That would cause the oil to have metal flakes.

Do as the others members suggested,
Do a mechanical pressure test
Test the pick up tube o ring.
Has the vehicle had synthetic oil changes? Conventional oil gumps up and plugs the oil passages.
If those tests pass it's time to rebuild the engine. The bearings are to worn out that the oil is not pumping up to the top of the engine.

Aburns70 · Dec 23, 2023

j91z28d1 said:
don't take my word as official, just my experiences mixed with what I've read that makes sense to me. other guys here have way more experience with low oil pressure diagnostics over the web. in person with some tools is much easier haha.

so the o ring is on the suction side of the oil pump, if that o ring cracks it can suck air along with the oil, and you get foaming of the oil on the output side after the pump showing up at low pressure. it's a pretty common post around here at about the mileage you have, but others have changed it over low pressure and it not get much better. so it's a legitimate thing but not 100% you fix. that's why the test is to either add extra oil so it's above the o ring, or since the o ring is at the front of the engine, if you get on a steep hill nose down, oil will go forward and cover the ring to. I've not needed to do either test, but it's said you'll see the pressure come right up. you really should drain any extra oil you put in it back out thou after the test. high oil level can cause it's own set of problems.

I don't know how long these engines will run without oil pressure before they start to knock and tapping, but it should be tapping if it really has no oil pressure. heck, most ls engines tap a little with good oil pressure haha. so before you do anything drastic, I do think it's worth putting a real gauge on it. so the thing is, there's a little fine screen under the oil pressure sensor. because the sensor happens to be inline with the oil going to the active fuel management stuff and it needs to be extra clean for that. but if this screen gets clogged up, it's not blocking oil pressure to the main engine bearings, but it will block it from the pressure sensor and the AFM. what we don't know is if the shop replaced that screen or honestly if the sensor itself is even good.

it is what it is about the cost.. we all don't know what we know, and I've been taken before myself. drives me nuts but it happens. the gimmick is he probably billed you as if he had to remove the entire intake manifold to get to the sensor, which does make it eaiser and shop manual might even call for it. but it's not needed, I've replaced it both ways. it's not fun at all, but it can be done by laying across the engine with the right tools. but it's also very hard to replace that screen like that too since you can't really see what you're doing back there and you need a pick or a hook of some sort to pull it out.

any info on the maintenance history? the big question is usually was oil changes done every 4-5k miles, or by the much long change oil dash light. the long changes leads to gunk and sludge build up, which leads more clogging of that screen and the afm nightmare issues you'll read about if you search for afm.

so yeah, if you can test it either at the oil test port at the front of the engine with a mechanical gauge, or it hooked into the sensor port with the screen removed, you'll have a better idea what's really going on. how you get that done, I really don't know without knowing what you're comfortable with doing yourself.

I forgot to ask, once the oil pressure hits zero, how long do you have to have it off for the oil. pressure to come back up on restart. like 5 to 10mins or hours for the engine to cool completely?

So a couple things, a big chunk on the shops bill was removing the manifold, and the labor/time needed to do that.

2nd- I got the low oil pressure warning at around 5psi while driving to work, but never hit 0, then the warning turned off and then turned on again a minute or two later right as I was parking the vehicle. I drove about 4-5miles to get to work once the first warning came on.

I purchased the vehicle back in may from my brother in law. He always said the oil had been changed regularly and before him it was his dads car before he passed away. But going back to before there was never any inclination of knocking noises or the such coming from the engine, and has always sounded like everything was running like a charm.

Geotrash · Dec 23, 2023

Fless said:
The first thing to find out is if they cleaned or replaced the screen that's under the oil pressure sender.

^^^ This. Find out with absolute certainty if the shop replaced the filter screen. I can virtually guarantee that this is your culprit. Lots of techs know to replace the sensor but not all of them know there is a screen under it that MUST be thoroughly cleaned or replaced at the same time. You may need to water board the tech to get the truth though.

j91z28d1 · Dec 23, 2023

Geotrash said:
^^^ This. Find out with absolute certainty if the shop replaced the filter screen. I can virtually guarantee that this is your culprit. Lots of techs know to replace the sensor but not all of them know there is a screen under it that MUST be thoroughly cleaned or replaced at the same time. You may need to water board the tech to get the truth though.

I think you're right.

man I feel bad for people dealing with stuff like this.

B-train · Dec 23, 2023

j91z28d1 said:
I think you're right.

man I feel bad for people dealing with stuff like this.

Agreed......I can't fathom just taking someone because they are unsuspecting (no offense OP). IF that's what happened, it will eventually catch up to that person....

There has been a great number of suggestions here, so I have nothing to add in the diagnosis department. I would definitely do an quick look at the oil on the dipstick though. Run it for several minutes, then shut it off and wait a few minutes. Then pull the dipstick and wipe it on a new, clean white rag, or a dark color like navy blue or black. After that, check onn good light for anything shiny in the oil area. I've used dark colored shirts in the past for this and the contrast can sometimes make it easier to see.

If you don't see anything shiny, then go forth with above mentioned checks/tests.

Joseph Garcia · Dec 23, 2023

Welcome to the Forum from NH.

Lots of knowledgeable folks here who freely share their knowledge, experiences, and perspectives. Knowledge is power.

I hope that you will become a participating member in the Forum's discussions.

Pics of the truck, please.

You are already receiving sage advice from the knowledgeable folks on this Forum.

georgerenner · Dec 26, 2023

Aburns70 said:
So a couple things, a big chunk on the shops bill was removing the manifold, and the labor/time needed to do that.

2nd- I got the low oil pressure warning at around 5psi while driving to work, but never hit 0, then the warning turned off and then turned on again a minute or two later right as I was parking the vehicle. I drove about 4-5miles to get to work once the first warning came on.

I purchased the vehicle back in may from my brother in law. He always said the oil had been changed regularly and before him it was his dads car before he passed away. But going back to before there was never any inclination of knocking noises or the such coming from the engine, and has always sounded like everything was running like a charm.

Merry Christmas! I too have had the same problem and please allow me to explain what I found. My engine is the L92. So find out what engine you have and start from there. My oil pick up o ring was cracked and in cold weather I would get the same warning. I changed the sensor, but in my l92 I did not have a oil pressure sensor screen so I wasn't able to eliminate that issue.

Aburns70 said:
So a couple things, a big chunk on the shops bill was removing the manifold, and the labor/time needed to do that.

2nd- I got the low oil pressure warning at around 5psi while driving to work, but never hit 0, then the warning turned off and then turned on again a minute or two later right as I was parking the vehicle. I drove about 4-5miles to get to work once the first warning came on.

I purchased the vehicle back in may from my brother in law. He always said the oil had been changed regularly and before him it was his dads car before he passed away. But going back to before there was never any inclination of knocking noises or the such coming from the engine, and has always sounded like everything was running like a charm.

Fless said:
The first thing to find out is if they cleaned or replaced the screen that's under the oil pressure sender

Merry Christmas! Fless is right! You should check the screen! SOP 101! My L92, in my 2007 Yukon, Denali, had the same problem, but doesn't have the screen, here is the reason why. Your Tahoe, LC9 engine has AFM, and this needs a large quantity of oil to operate, my L92 does not. This is the second part of the problem. Bearing wear is the third. Your engines bearings are probably good. Your AFM is not a good feature. I recommend disabling it. I use a Range Technology disabler on both my 2011 Suburban with the 5.3l LC9, and my 2011 Yukon, Denali with the 6.2l L94. It is a ten hour shop job to replace the oil pickup tube seal, a simple o-ring in a very hard to get to location. I did it a year ago on the L92 engine. I even replaced the oil pump while there. My oil pressure improved on cold start up but would drop to around 10psi at idle after it warmed up. I did inspect the camshaft bearings and found them correct, not damaged and no metal in the oil pan. But my oil pressure is still low. I attribute that to normal bearing wear as I have 230,00 miles on the engine and I drive it hard. I surmise your bearing wear should be normal, your o-ring is cracked, your oil pressure sending unit screen is plugged up, and your AFM is activating causing a pressure drop. Fix the pressure screen 1st, disable the AFM 2nd, and replace the o-ring 3rd. Then you can go racing again! Also I always ran full synthetic and Duralube. God bless!

Aburns70 · Dec 26, 2023

Hey just getting back on here now after the holidays and about to head into the shop and talk to the guys about the truck. I appreciate the feedback and atleast have a little bit of information on what we can do to problem solve the issue vs just saying I need a new engine. I will update later today once I have talk to them, but I am also going to be calling around to a few other shops this afternoon to get a second opinion.

Doubeleive · Dec 26, 2023

Aburns70 said:
Hey just getting back on here now after the holidays and about to head into the shop and talk to the guys about the truck. I appreciate the feedback and atleast have a little bit of information on what we can do to problem solve the issue vs just saying I need a new engine. I will update later today once I have talk to them, but I am also going to be calling around to a few other shops this afternoon to get a second opinion.

there are a lot of what if's
but I would find a shop that's not going to ream you for starters
unless you can see glitter in the oil then I would order a oil test kit from blackstone labs, the test is like $30-35 and that is best way to judge the engine condition without tearing it down.
aside from that I would ask around about cost to drop the pan and check and/or replace the oil pump o-ring/pick up tube.
if it is not the pick up tube or oil pressure sensor sensor screen then it's probably time to shop engines

2012 Chevy Tahoe low oil pressure/ shop says I need new engine!

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