Just bought a 2013 with the 5.3 liter. oil pressure is only running about 45 psi, Googled a bit and some say this is normal. What say you guys?
Chevy Silverado oil pressure
- Thread starter tomcatmv
- Start date
when it hits zero you're in trouble..................
Put another gallon or so in there, that should get it up.
I have an 04 and mine rides just over 40 when everything is normal. The sucker has 385k miles on it and whatever sensor regulates that is pretty messed up. In the winter is says my oil pressure is 20 until the engine warms up or I give it some gas, and during the summer it triggers my check engine light all the time because if it downshifts while going 70 on the highway to go uphill or pass someone it says its 50+. I'm determined to get it to 500k miles but it's starting to look more and more bleak every season haha.
Low oil pressure when cold? Had an '06 6.0 gas that did that. After getting info here, had the oil pickup tube & o-ring replaced. That fixed it. Might be a similar issue you're having. I'm NOT a mechanic...
45 is fine, if it drops into the 20's it is most likely the screen on the oil pressure sensor being dirty. My 2011 has 125K on it and other than the dirty screen causing a drop to 22 it has spent 8 years between 40 and 45.
Same here. I’m betting that’s exactly the case. Low oil pressure when cold is pretty indicative of a pickup problem. On a 4WD Silverado of your (my) vintage it’s either pull the engine or pull the front axle to get the oil pan off. 6 Hrs of $$$ labor to replace a 75-cent O-ring.
What do you think it should be? You ever had a vehicle with an oil pressure gauge before? 45psi is normal operating pressure, while driving, or cold. Hot idle can go as low as 15psi while at a stop. Will not get a "low pressure" warning until about 5psi.
Thanks guys for the answers. It only has 56,000 miles so I figured it was OK. I have it back at the dealer for a little body repair and they gave me a new 2020 Z71 for a loaner and it runs right at 60psi so that's why
i was wondering.
i was wondering.
Oops! Yep, this is true. I confused the OP with one of the later posts talking about a change in what they had been seeing previously. In my case that I mentioned above, I started getting Check Oil Pressure warnings on startup (cold) that went away in a couple seconds, but the gauge still stayed in the lower range for a few minutes until it warmed up a bit.
They have a problem with the mid 2000's sucking air through the oil pump pick up tube where it meets the oil pump housing, on cold start up. Low oil pressure until tube heats up and expands. Starts as you describe and gets worse. Seen one show 0 psi for almost 5 minutes idling. Normally I replace oil pump and pickup tube. Rumor has it you can just replace the oring where they join, but that is a lot of work if you have to go back in, and there is no sign of damage to the oring.
on the LS engines the oil pressure sensor is the last thing to get oil, so it will always read lower than what the crank/rods/cam are seeing. where-as older engines had the oil pressure sensor in a main galley or next to oil filter so you were seeing MAX oil pressure. I guarantee the last lifter see less oil the the first main bearing.
Volume is the important part anyway.
Your 2013 has an LS based motor and single stage oil pump and possibly AFM lifters. 1psi per hundred RPM when hot is considered minimum per GM. Thats REALLY low IMO, but in the spec. When an LS oil pressure sensor goes it defaults to 99psi. 40psi cold(which isnt really that cold in the summer time) wouldnt shock me.
The 2020 loaner has an LT based motor which I believe they all(im most familiar with Corvette) use a variable volume pump(I have heard it called a 2 stage as well, but thats not quite accurate as its variable). That motor also has AFM and DOD. I would expect to see higher oil pressure on this motor.
As to the o-ring on the pickup, when my buddies truck had that problem, it was REALLY low, like 6 or 7 psi when cold low... not 40 psi cold...
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Add some STP to your engine oil,,, that'll bring the numbers up.
Might choke off some 'small ports' but you don't need those anyways. If you don't let any 'leak away' then you'll have lots of pressure to your sensor. Never mind those piddly little rotating/spinning/reciprocating do-dads, they don't matter much.
The gauge is what's important.
Might choke off some 'small ports' but you don't need those anyways. If you don't let any 'leak away' then you'll have lots of pressure to your sensor. Never mind those piddly little rotating/spinning/reciprocating do-dads, they don't matter much.
The gauge is what's important.
You are correct. The oring/pick up issue is really really low preasure. Will cause low oil pressure warning on cluster. All the ones I have seen have been 0 for 2-5 minutes at idle in the winter. I am not sure it gets cold enough in the summer for it to show up.
You can get the "range" device and shut it off and GM will never know. Plugs into OBD port.
Its not the tune that sucks, its the shit AFM lifters... To do it right you need to swap the lifters for non AFM lifters and the valley plate for a non AFM/DOD valley plate.
The range is a band aid and has been known to cause other issues. All oem tunes suck, dyno tuning here runs $400/hr. Well worth that just to clean up the shifts, even better if you have intake/exhaust mods.
I agree with swapping the valve train over, not going that route until needed.
I agree with swapping the valve train over, not going that route until needed.
