What's worse than the engine oil light coming on?...no engine oil light.

[abscate]

Excellent, Its much faster bucket filling when you help others though.

Me sitting down with Procurement Officer for a large piece of optical apparatus: Thats an unusual name, but I just met a young lady with that name in town the other day...

Procurement guy: Are you the guy who changed my wife's tire on the way to work?

Me> Guilty as charged

Procurement Guy" Let me get you that order....

[cn90]

In most vehicles, the low oil pressure light comes on when the pickup screen is no longer submerged in oil.
This happens when you lose approx. 1/2 of the oil in the sump.
I think at disptick MAX, the sump contains about 6 qts.

Now, with the sump containing only 3.0-3.5 qts, the oil pump delivers a mix of air bubbles and oil, not bad yet as the crank bearing still gets oil, but going up against gravity...the cams and lifters may not get much oil: not a problem on short term basis, since the cams and lifters run on "passive oil", i.e., some oil there is good enough.
The crank bearing, being exposed to the piston coming down at full force, needs "pressurized oil", otherwise it dies within a few minutes.

So, when the oil pump delivers a mix of air bubbles and oil, the light is ON in the dash. This is when one should shut down the engine immediately and gets off the road if possible.

In your case, eventually the oil will get back to the lifters etc. and the noise will go away soon or later.

PS: The turbo engines in the P80 usually consumes about 1 qt/1K miles. Carry some oil in the trunk to add if you need to.
Check your oil level at every fuel fill-up.

[bmdubya1198]

Huh... while we're on this topic (not to thread jack) my cousin's '99 T5 has some very noisy lifters. I have a feeling this has to do with the car not running for 3-4 months, but is there anything that can be done about it without replacing the lifters (I assume it's a solid lifter car being that it's an RN motor)? Seems odd that it still does this. We changed the oil soon after we got the car running again (back in August) but the lifters are STILL making a racket. Some days are better, some are worse. While you're driving, you can't hear it that much, but at idle it's absolutely awful. The only time it gets quieter is when you add oil and there is plenty of oil in the top end.
It also has an oddly slow start, like it revs a little (to 600 RPM, drops, then up to probably 1200ish... normal for starting a car) then continues on normally. The car still runs great otherwise, it's just weird and slightly unsettling considering he wants to do a bit of performance mods. I should probably start a separate thread on this.

[FlyingVolvo]

PS: The turbo engines in the P80 usually consumes about 1 qt/1K miles. Carry some oil in the trunk to add if you need to.
Check your oil level at every fuel fill-up.

Wait... what? 1 quart of oil for 1,000 miles? If that's the case, I would think something is very wrong! I add about 1 quart of makeup oil over 6,000 miles.

[bmdubya1198]

PS: The turbo engines in the P80 usually consumes about 1 qt/1K miles. Carry some oil in the trunk to add if you need to.
Check your oil level at every fuel fill-up.

Wait... what? 1 quart of oil for 1,000 miles? If that's the case, I would think something is very wrong! I add about 1 quart of makeup oil over 6,000 miles.

Yeah... I agree. I've only used about 2/3 of a quart over 3,000 miles... and that is including an oil cooler line replacement. Maybe my engine is just in impeccably good condition... yeah right

[Clemens]

@ bmdubya1198

I guess his lifters are about shot or clogged. Some people get good results from using an internal cleaner (not seafoam) together with frequent oil changes, fully synth oil and keeping the rpms above 4000 for a while (kinda hard on a turbo AT without braking the law in the US).
The good news is that you can replace the lifters pretty late because you are (according to a volvo mechanic) not going to ruin anything in the bottom end of the motor, and for replacing the lifters you jeed to get the head off anyhow, so a head job is the worst that can happen.

[polskamafia mjl]

About 3.5 quarts came out. So it was about 2 quarts low.

That's not low enough to cause low oil pressure and that's why the light didn't come on. The oil light is a pressure indicator not a level indicator.

[bmdubya1198]

@ bmdubya1198

I guess his lifters are about shot or clogged. Some people get good results from using an internal cleaner (not seafoam) together with frequent oil changes, fully synth oil and keeping the rpms above 4000 for a while (kinda hard on a turbo AT without braking the law in the US).
The good news is that you can replace the lifters pretty late because you are (according to a volvo mechanic) not going to ruin anything in the bottom end of the motor, and for replacing the lifters you jeed to get the head off anyhow, so a head job is the worst that can happen.

He enjoys keeping the RPM over 4000 . Although it can't be for a long period, because of the automatic, like you said. I'll have to do some research on engine treatments other than seafoam. I know he wouldn't use that in the engine, and I sure as hell wouldn't after the horror stories I've read! I'll have to check out LiquiMoly since I see it all the time at Napa.
Thanks!

[Clemens]

I talked to a liqui moly rep the orher day about this product because my lifters tick as well. He says it is safe to use. But then, salespeople lie if they need to...

[bmdubya1198]

I talked to a liqui moly rep the orher day about this product because my lifters tick as well. He says it is safe to use. But then, salespeople lie if they need to...

Well, Seafoam is supposed to be safe too, so...

I do trust the Liqui-Moly brand, though. They are a pretty reputable brand from what I can tell.