The Toyota Landcruiser Owners Club

[bigchaz]

Hi looking for some help with this one as it has me and a few mechanics stumped without deep investigation. Every now and then the low oil level light comes on the dash, there's no specific time or reason it does it and doesn't run bad once it's on. No smoke or rattling whatsoever and drives absolutely fine.

Has anyone had this issue before? Is it likely to be a bad sensor?

It's a 2008 invincible and has been fully serviced to see if that cured it but it has not.

Thanks,

Chaz

[Google]

[TONYCY11]

The very first thing to check is if the oil pickup has black carbon gunge on it and restricting the oil the is being picked up through it ,  you need to drain the engine oil as soon as possible and look up the oil drain hole in the sump and the wire mesh oil pick up should be completely clear , if not and is dirty you have blow by from your injectors and its blocking the oil pickup that  will starve the engine of oil and it will be good bye to your engine , if the pick up is clean and clear you can relax and look for simple things  like oil pressure switch etc .

[TONYCY11]

Said oil pressure switch but ment to say oil level switch , some cars incorporate both level and pressure on the same sensor . Never looked on the 120s , there is a sensor switch near the oil filter on the oil cooler .

[bigchaz]

Thanks for your reply. If it were the injectors would the light not be on constantly and engine running rough? Sorry for the questions I'm relatively new to the LC world but have experienced Knackered injector seals on an old ml270 that had black death so if it were the seals would it not have the same symptoms and characteristics as the merc had when they failed? I do know however the car had new injectors roughly 70,000 miles ago. Would that have been due to the recall?

Oil pressure switch has been changed last week but has no cured it. Just to clarify the light isn't on most of the time and the lads that have looked at it seem to think there's nothing wrong with it.

Lastly if it were starving the engine of oil would the red light not be on to show low pressure?

[TONYCY11]

If the oil pressure light comes on due to injector seat blow by it will be due to a fully blocked oil pick up strainer and the engine by then will be beyond saving , I am not saying you have injector blow by but I would be checking for it asap if any kind of oil light flashes on and off , it is common practice to check the oil pickup by looking through the drain hole at every oil change in order to catch it early incase it happens , if the car has had new injectors and or new seats and the right amount of cleaning of the injector ports have not been done properly it will allow premature injector blow by . I am not saying your engine has not been done properly but checking the oil pick up is a good and easy way of finding out if blowby iis starting or already happening  , and like I said its common practice to check every oil change anyway , if not by you you can instruct your mechanic to check and take a pic with his phone to show you . If your oil light is an electrical  problem and the engine has enough oil it is nothing to worry about as it will be a loose connector or chafed wire which can be common on a diesel when wires are tightly close to engine parts as diesel engines vibrate . Oh there was a recall for the injector seats and not the injectors themselves , and I would not trust most toyota technicians  to do that job properly with the surgical cleanliness that is needed to do the job properly .

[bigchaz]

That makes perfect sense, thankyou very much for that it's booked in now with a lad who knows what to do. Fingers crossed it's just a wire anyway for my bank balances sake.

[TONYCY11]

Its more than likely it is a wire problem , but checking the oil pick up could well save  your engine , and with it so easy to do its a no brainer , just as checking the oil pick up at every engine oil change is good practice .

[Tractionman]

Well explained as usual Tony, good advice 👍

[bigchaz]

Yeah thanks a lot mate, much appreciated!

[bigchaz]

Hey up guys,

Thought I'd post an update. It's took me ages to get round to this as work is in silly season so just not had the time. Found a very good Toyota specialist not too far from me and he dropped the oil and inspected the pickup strainer which was clean as a whistle so big relief on that part. He couldn't find any wiring issues so suspected is was the level switch. From Toyota this part would have been £531 plus vat. Unbelievable. Anyway took the part number from them and sourced one for £180 new (still more than I'd want to pay but needs must and all that). He fitted that and thankfully it seems to have cured the old girl.

Big thanks for all your help on this one again.

[andy]

Well done for getting back with the result, we get loads of people that don't bother with any feedback, but expect the help.  
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[bigchaz]

No problem Andy, apologies it took so long between work and a 3 year old I don't feel like I've had a minute for months!

[Tractionman]

👍👍