S60 Low Oil Pressure warning light

[Krons]

Oh boy. My kid mentioned the 2002 started with an intermittent oil pressure light today. Impressed he noticed it. Light went off quickly when I fired it up to bring into the garage.

Polling the wisdom of this group on where to start.

180k miles, bought it at 150k and showed some slight signs of sludging when I got it (oil cap, VVT solenoid), been doing frequent oil change intervals since. Last oil changed showed some carbon deposits in filter but zero sludge. Very little sludge now under oil cap.

I'm tempted to start with oil pressure sensor. Then move to dropping the pan to check the oil pickup and change orings. Thoughts?

[ignatz]

Sounds like a good plan of attack. My 01 had crap under the oil cap when I bought it. I cleaned it up and changed oil a couple of times and my VVT solenoid also went out. Next it was the oil light like your 02. I did an oil pan /oil pickup o-ring job and all is well. Be prepared for a lot of cleaning up with the oil pan when you do the job. The channel in the block running up to the PCV box was full of muck.

[Krons]

Well optimism got the best of me. Ran the car a bit and could not recreate the oil light, even when hot and higher rpm.

Let the oil drain overnight on the ramps. Pulled the fan shroud and swapped out the oil pressure sensor. Old one has some sludge muck on it and after staring at the pan a while decided to dump new oil in and run it. Checked oil after warming and saw the dreaded bubbles on the dipstick. I failed to check for them earlier.

Good news is my 02 S60 2.4T does not have the steering line running under the pan so should be a straightforward job. Will likely run this oil 1000 miles then tackle those orings....assuming no low oil pressure lights.

Edit: After further thought and an open day tomorrow decided to drop the oil tonight in prep to pull the sump tommorrow. Oil came out like a milkshake with all the bubbles from only idling the 5 min to get it on the ramps. Fun awaits.

[abscate]

Good luck , Krons.

Not the best feeling a complete valve job, car idling in driveway, pop in for a moment,and one out to hear lifters clicking and oil pressure light on. I clogged the oil pickup with paper towel debris doing the head job.

Dropped the pan. You can lower it by removing the PS lines on RN motors easily. I found clogged pickup. And ducked in orings giving bad oil pressure.

3000 miles on rebuild now, running sweet

[Krons]

Success with the oil pan reseal. All the orings replaced were pretty hard. No bubbles now in the oil. With that and the oil pressure sensor (very easy to do if pan is off) I hope no further oil pressure issues.

A note on this task for an 02 S60 2.4T. No steering lines to tie off like earlier models. Also I did not need to jack the engine up for clearance. There was just enough room on passenger side to sneak the pan past the subframe and oil pickup. Would recommend this for a novice as I found it straightforward. A bonus was I could get as detailed as I wanted on sludge/carbon cleanup, not something a technician may do. I did paper towels, then boiling water and Dawn dish soap then boiling water and Simple Green soak, then a pressure washer...