No oil pressure at start up, 2001 Tahoe

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VikingTrad3r

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My problem was the o ring. It was hardened and in no less than 5 pieces bleeding oil. All fixed, good as new. It's weird how it threw the stabilitrack warning, but that is working too (we just got snow last week)


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right on. glad to hear its a very common issue. did you have any trouble getting the oil pan to seal up?
 

rook

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No leaks so far that I can tell, but it's been freezing, snowing, raining and I've been parking cars in different places so I haven't been able to really see just from what drops on the ground. I was just happy to find that he pan didn't have any metal shavings - who knows how long people let it idle without oil pressure before I bought it.


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Lvmywife01

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I was searching to see if I should use royal purple hmx this oil change in my 01 tahoe. I found this thread and read through it. My tahoe has 351,698 original miles on it. And has not had oil pressure at start up for near 30,000 miles now.
I park in my driveway on a small downhill incline to keep my oil pressure from dropping when I start it up to get before I go anywhere this keeps my oil pressure up enough to not sound like a dry engine and let everything clack. But if I'm on flat ground and do this or parked with nose uphill it has no pressure.
I'm wondering now should I do what has been done to my tahoe in the beginning of this thread? And should I even dare put royal purple hmx (high mileage synthetic oil) in it?
 

VikingTrad3r

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sounds like the oring. all i can say is quaker state defy (high mileage) works great for us. it must have some swellers in it. this isnt a long term fix, and i need to get the oring fixed.
 

4x4van

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How much harder is this job (the o-ring) with a 4WD? I've got an '06 Tahoe LT 4WD that has 0 oil pressure at idle, comes up to about 20 while driving. When it drops to zero, the beeping/"Oil Pressure Low" warning comes on in the DIC. My wife's truck, so I don't drive it too often; couldn't say how long the pressure has been low, but it just went low enough to trigger the beeping/warning, and the valves are ticking noticeably. I'm hopeful that an O-ring will fix the problem, rather than an engine rebuild/replacement, but I don't know...
 

VikingTrad3r

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its not hard if you have a basic set of tools. the front diff needs to be un-hung and pushed forward. THERE IS A VIDEO of a guy who did it without (rickafix or something like that, on youtube) moving the diff but its way way easier.

i did my pan while i did my front diff carrier bearings.


in the mean time, grab some quaker state "defy" 5w30 and do an oil change. in my case, the swellers in the high mileage oil swelled the oring enough to get the pressure back on startup. i will be dropping my pan again to the oring but this high mileage oil did fix it for now.

im sure other high mileage oils have swellers in them.





How much harder is this job (the o-ring) with a 4WD? I've got an '06 Tahoe LT 4WD that has 0 oil pressure at idle, comes up to about 20 while driving. When it drops to zero, the beeping/"Oil Pressure Low" warning comes on in the DIC. My wife's truck, so I don't drive it too often; couldn't say how long the pressure has been low, but it just went low enough to trigger the beeping/warning, and the valves are ticking noticeably. I'm hopeful that an O-ring will fix the problem, rather than an engine rebuild/replacement, but I don't know...
 

rook

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How much harder is this job (the o-ring) with a 4WD? I've got an '06 Tahoe LT 4WD that has 0 oil pressure at idle, comes up to about 20 while driving. When it drops to zero, the beeping/"Oil Pressure Low" warning comes on in the DIC. My wife's truck, so I don't drive it too often; couldn't say how long the pressure has been low, but it just went low enough to trigger the beeping/warning, and the valves are ticking noticeably. I'm hopeful that an O-ring will fix the problem, rather than an engine rebuild/replacement, but I don't know...

A couple things:
This isn't too hard, but you have to decide to go all-in to get it done. I have an AWD 2008 Denali, and I had to pull the rims, the CV joints, the crossmember, the diff, front driveshaft, the pinion steering, the whole 9 yards before I could get the pan down. You've got an earlier body style, but on mine, I HAD to take I all down because the oil pan is too tight to take down otherwise. I was able to do it myself and it took a little while, but they're all big bolt parts with a fair amount of room for a breaker bar down there on the tight stuff (I did mine in my garage on jacks).

If you have 0 oil pressure at idle, do something now. After I learned what might be happening, I babied mine when I had to drive it, put it in neutral at stops and brought the idle up to get pressure back in the system. I didn't have my lifters tick at all doing this. If yours are ticking, no Bueno...

I've got some pictures of my gauge when I first noticed it, and the six pieces my grommet/o-ring was in when I took it out here:
http://www.tahoeyukonforum.com/threads/oil-pressure-gauge-stopped-working.71998/
 
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SLCHOE

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A couple things:
This isn't too hard, but you have to decide to go all-in to get it done. I have an AWD 2008 Denali, and I had to pull the rims, the CV joints, the crossmember, the diff, front driveshaft, the pinion steering, the whole 9 yards before I could get the pan down. You've got an earlier body style, but on mine, I HAD to take I all down because the oil pan is too tight to take down otherwise. I was able to do it myself and it took a little while, but they're all big bolt parts with a fair amount of room for a breaker bar down there on the tight stuff (I did mine in my garage on jacks).

If you have 0 oil pressure at idle, do something now. After I learned what might be happening, I babied mine when I had to drive it, put it in neutral at stops and brought the idle up to get pressure back in the system. I didn't have my lifters tick at all doing this. If yours are ticking, no Bueno...

I've got some pictures of my gauge when I first noticed it, and the six pieces my grommet/o-ring was in when I took it out here:
http://www.tahoeyukonforum.com/threads/oil-pressure-gauge-stopped-working.71998/

Why? 3 bolts that hold the differential up drops it down with axles connected. You spent way too much time doing it the way you did.
 

rook

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Maybe, for the diff. I like having stuff out of the way. And, I didn't know if they'd fall out of the hub and how fun putting them back in would be. My K2500 CV's were a PITA to get back in...


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