lifespan of an oil pump

Matt82

Matt82

Matt82

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Joined
13 Mar 2004
Posts
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my old golf is still on its original oil pump. 225k miles, mostly driven hard.

does anyone have any experience of how well these things last? i dont have an oil pressure gauge so i dont know what the actual pressure is (i think ive just answered my own question..)

in your experience would it be worth changing the oil pump?
 
Matt82 said:
my old golf is still on its original oil pump. 225k miles, mostly driven hard.

does anyone have any experience of how well these things last? i dont have an oil pressure gauge so i dont know what the actual pressure is (i think ive just answered my own question..)

in your experience would it be worth changing the oil pump?
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at that mileage everything goes out the window, it would be hard to guess what would fail first, if its worrying you change it because its probably way past its MTBF :)
 
The pump does obviously wear but I would say other factors such as the bearings are what mostly make the oil pressure lower rather than the pump itself.

What golf is it? I'd imagine if newish Vagcom might be able to tell.
 
no ecu i know of in the line up of golfs monitors oil pressure. its a 1995 16v.

i really ought to just get an oil pressure gauge on it.
 
I wouldn't bother it will more than likely outlast the engine. Its a relatively unstressed piece of kit and loads of cars do way more than 225k. I've never even heard of an oil pump failing.
 
ive known a few oil pump failures being blamed for blocked oil pump pick ups. i know mine is clear though

definately need the gauge though
 
Matt82 said:
definately need the gauge though
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It tells you nothing. High pressure when the oil is cold, less pressure when the oil is warm, oil pressure changes with revs, thats it.

You have no reference to benchmark against? It'll tell you when the oil has stopped moving, and at that point you'll already know as the engine will have gone bang.

Save your money.
 
Matt82 said:
ive known a few oil pump failures being blamed for blocked oil pump pick ups.
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Other way around surely? A blocked pick up could cause the pump to fail (though the bearings will likely give out first) but I don't see how a failed pump could block the pickup (unless the pump literally disintegrates into thousands of small bits).

Oil pressure issues are rarely caused by worn pumps, faulty pressure relief vales and worn bearings/journals are the most common cause.
 
ie when an pick up has blocked people have blamed the oil pump for failing when in reality bad servicing caused the pick up to block.
 
hmm I mildly disagree, I used my oil guage to watch my sustained pressure whilst spanking it, the more I spanked it the hotter the oil got and subsequently the lower the pressure got, I had lower limits set which insisted I backed off and allowed my poor car to recover!

probably also good for noticing decreasing viscosity levels and susequent drops in pressure, I changed my oil every 1-2k so that wasn't specifically an issue for me but might be another reason/'nice to have'

just some musings :p
 
Matt82 said:
but it would tell me if the pressure was within VW's specs, which would be nice to know
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which it will be, sometimes, depending on throttle position, oil temp, oil condition etc, it really is pointless. It looks cool though, I'll give you that, I had one in my caddy :)
 
but it would give me an idea if im running my engline close to disaster. it gets used hard, ive got a track day in a couple weeks. it could be horrendously low right now and a new pump could be an extended lease of life

screw you guys. im getting a gauge

(ocuk... asking for advice and not following a single word of it!)
 
Matt82 said:
but it would give me an idea if im running my engline close to disaster. it gets used hard, ive got a track day in a couple weeks. it could be horrendously low right now and a new pump could be an extended lease of life

screw you guys. im getting a gauge

(ocuk... asking for advice and not following a single word of it!)
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*starts chanting*
defi defi defi defi
 
thepedster said:
It tells you nothing. High pressure when the oil is cold, less pressure when the oil is warm, oil pressure changes with revs, thats it.

You have no reference to benchmark against?
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Yes you do, the workshop manual will provide a range of acceptable pressure at a certain RPM, you can check this by temporarily replacing the oil pressure switch with a gauge.
 
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pfft 200k miles is nothing.


had an octavia tdi with well north of 500k thats never had engine work :)
 
BigglesPiP said:
Yes you do, the workshop manual will provide a range of acceptable pressure at a certain RPM, you can check this by temporarily replacing the pol pressure switch with a gauge.
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yeah, if you jump through every hoop of getting the right oil quality, thickness, temperature, atmospheric conditions, and the if your gauge is at all accurate (which you'll never know)

again, looks cool, isn't useful.
 
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