200tdi oil warning light on tickover (when hot)

[mudmad]

Hi all ,

i have a 200tdi depender which up until i bought her had done very little off roading but after my last session down in wiltshire she has started flashing her oil warning light on tickover but only when she's hot, if i rev her up it goes out , oil levels are ok and she's losing no oil . however over the last few days i have noticed a slight knock it sounds like its coming from the cam . i'm suspecting maybe oil pump ! ?.

any help would be most appreciated

[Les Henson]

The oil pump is actually in the sump and is driven by a shaft from the cam. You remove the pump by draining the oil and removing the sump pan -

The knock may be something else, so I would suggest you change the oil and the sender (they are very cheap).

Les.

[Orgasmic Farmer]

My first Disco 200 tdi did this just after I bought it. First solution I did was to turn up the idle to about 900 RPM. This fixed it but wasn't satisfactory. So I changed the oil for a good quality semi synthetic (from Difflock.com) and then every 6000 miles since and it has never again come on!

[Ryan]

Mine was doing this after some long, high revving climbs, and also on some lower revving climbs that were continually skyward in the Alps this year - once it had sat for a bit on tickover and cooled down all was fine. I'm told that there can be a problem with either the cam seals or crank seals (sorry, forget which - if V8bertha is around he'll remind me) on the 200tdi (a "known" problem apparently).

[mudmad]

thanks all ,

will try the sender and the oil change first ,and i'll let you know how it goes

[jil6939]

I had the same problem on a 300 of mine and i was convinced that it had oil pressure as i knew it's history etc. I changed the sender and the thermostat at the same time and it never did it again. I dont know if a 200 has a thermostat though? May i suggest you borrow a pressure gauge to put on it to have a look.

[v8bertha]

The problem that Ryan mentions is to do with a cam bearing at the back of the engine. Can't remember what causes it, but the bearing moves back, exposing the oil way and leaving a big gap between the cam and the block. This causes low oil pressure on tick over. as soon as you rev the engine slightly the oil light goes out until back to idle again when the light will start to flicker again.

If this is the cause of your flickery light then you'll need to completely strip the engine down to have new bearings fitted!

AFAIK this has never been a problem on 300TDi's

The oil pump is driven by a shaft off the Cam on a 200Tdi.

You can take off the breather plate on the side of the engine and look at the cam. You should be able to see the cam bearing,if you can't then I'd say it's likely the bearing has moved in the block.

But like you say, its easier to do an oil change in the first instance.

IIRC there are a couple of threads somewhere on the forum about this problem... If I can find 'em I'll post up some links.

Dan

[Orange]

I was doing exactly the same, Dan!!

My thread...

The symptoms you are describing were one of a few problems I had. I changed the oil and filter and the problem seemed to go away, but I didn't really get the chance to test it by going for a long run or parking at silly angles again!!

HTH

Adrian

[mudmad]

thank's for the info but have decided to do away with the 200tdi and go with a 2.8td isuzu , i've been offered a engine and conversion kit for cheep so i think its the way forward. its a shame though the engine pulls like a train.