Low oil pressure warning after oil change.

[Pilot425]

Interesting. I would think that if viscosity grade was the same between the oils used, oil pressure would not be that much different regardless if one oil lacked manufacture spec.

Ever since I started using Pennzoil Platinum Euro full Syn “with MS-12991 and have stuck with the OEM filters from Doc Diesel and only use a digital torque wrench with a Newton Meter reading for 25NM I have never had the Low oil pressure problem appear again. Im sitting at 35k miles and change every 5K. So I think I have it figured out I hope.

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[DylanM]

Help! Same issue. Low Oil Pressure light right after oil change. Filters kit from Doc's Diesel. Oil is 5w40 Amsoil Full Syn European FS and meets API SN & SM.

Filter torque was a bit awkward using a mechanical click wrench(new) at the very low end ~19ft/lb.

If your torque wrench was set as shown in your picture, it isn't set correctly for 19ftlb. The collar should be run up so that it's even with the stepped line indicating 20, then backed off one pound. As pictured, you have it set to 9ftlbs.

Also, one should also be aware that click style torque wrenches are not considered accurate at any setting below 20% of its maximum rating. So a 100ftlb wrench should not be used for anything less than 20ftlb setting, one with a maximum of 40-60 would be appropriate.

 

[Wolf Island Diver]

When the dealership did my last change and left me stranded with the “low oil pressure” code, it was towed back in. The dealerhip told me there’s a ECU update to address this. It don’t know if that’s true. My bigger complaint was the tech spilling oil all over the place.

I did the next oil change myself. I used Euro Platinum from Amazon which is the cheapest I’ve found it: https://a.co/d/57rxP2O

After changing the oil my truck immediately gave me the low pressure warning. I restarted and it was gone.

18.43 ft/lbs is barely wrench tight. I probably have hand tightened every gasoline oil filter over the years tighter than that. I don’t think lack of torque is actually the issue. Most mechanics over tighten shit. I think it’s a flaky spaghetti engine with an ECU programed by monkeys. It’s the same kind of goofiness that makes only snorkels with a prefilter work.

 

[oracle_man]

Turns out that the filter was definitely not fully seated. Hard to tell unless you actually feal for the lip touching the block. I'll test drive after work and update.

 

[oracle_man]

I think problem solved. Pulled the filter and greased the thread and then is screwed down easily and fully. No more LOP.

 

[Wolf Island Diver]

I just had my low pressure warning come on when starting up this morning. The Jeep sat for 2 weeks while I was recovering from surgery. Yesterday it started for the first time with no issues. So sitting for a while isn’t a problem. However, after parking in my driveway, a little back from my gate, it puts the truck at a slight incline, maybe 10-15 degrees. This morning, a day after good hard interstate driving like the engine likes, I get the warning. When I check the pressure at the dash gauge it’s 49 PSI. Hardly low oil pressure. I restarted the truck and the light and the warning message is gone.

All of this screams ECU issue. Maybe with the previous bearing problems, they’ve set this thing to be hyper sensitive. I’ve started the truck in winter and gotten lifter rattle but no low oil pressure light. This morning, it’s warm and there was no rattle or any other indication that oil wasn’t readily available to the top of the engine. It’s got plenty of oil in the truck so I can’t imagine at this slight of an incline it’s not picking up oil from the pan. All of the post-oil change/filter replacement warnings I’ve had were false alarms. This engine also is hypersensitive to air intake issues as evidenced by the snorkel ram intake mass air code problem. Maybe being overly twitchy/cautious is not a bad thing. I’d rather this, than it not recognizing low pressure/volume problems. It seems that a lot of these modern light diesels have ECU and electronic gremlins. Frankly, as a software engineer myself, I wouldn’t be surprised if the state of software qa in the auto industry isn’t in the toilet like it is in every other industry. 1st time reliability just isn’t a priority, so we consumers are all beta testers now. After the last dealership oil change, that left me stranded, they supposedly applied a TSB ECU update. I wonder if there’s another one out there.

 

[Sweetums]

Overtorquing the filter seemed to cause it for me. After my first oil change using a torque wrench, I stopped using it on the filter. Now I use a ratchet knob on an extension, no leaks and no more low pressure warnings.

 

[Wolf Island Diver]

I’ve now started having these warnings intermittently, not related to inclines or after an oil change. I get the warning while driving or after startup and immediately check the pressure at the gauge and see that it’s good. I’ll then pull over and turn the truck off and on again. I see the same expected pressure as before and no warning. Then I’ll drive it for a few weeks before I have this again. It happened yesterday when it was 100°. I don’t think this is a cold engine issue.

I’ve checked the oil with the useless dipstick which only ever shows oil above and and below the hash marks and never on them. It’s the most useless dipstick I’ve seen on a vehicle of any kind. Anyway, it seems to have plenty of oil. I changed it myself and unlike the dealerships, I seem to be able to complete that task without hobbling the truck or spilling 2 quarts of oil on the ground.

I did have the warning after I changed my oil, but unlike when the dealership did it, the warming went off after a restart. I didn’t have the warning again for months. Now, I’m having it more frequently, like every few weeks. Anyone experience something like this?

p.s. I have a theory. The last gen had a bearing problem so Motori made some ECU changes and the recommended viscosity of oil. If memory serves me they made no internal modifications to the engine. I suspect that they increased the sensitivity of the ECU to transient pressure issues to err on the side of caution. I’m probably having those normal issues at startup. I’ve always had lifter rattle in this truck at startup. In my experience with a lot of engines, particularly 4 cylinder ones, this is fairly common. I’ve never worried about it. No engine’s oil is instantly everywhere at startup. I suspect that this triggers whatever code recognizes this condition and there’s no provision to recheck the state again until another start cycle. So this is an ECU problem, not an actual oil pressure problem. The problem with this is that the frequency of the issue seems to be increasing.

 

[Wolf Island Diver]

Damn it! Just did it again! Anyone else have this? I dread trying to have a dealership look at this.

 

[DylanM]

@Wolf Island Diver
No issues here (knock on wood), but my theory is the oil pressure display has some hysteresis whereas the threshold that the PCM uses to flag a warning doesn't. Maybe pulling up the oil pressure live data via the OBD port might show brief signal spikes that are triggering the warning. With any luck the cause is a flaky sender or loose/dirty wire connection.

 

[Wolf Island Diver]

@Wolf Island Diver
No issues here (knock on wood), but my theory is the oil pressure display has some hysteresis whereas the threshold that the PCM uses to flag a warning doesn't. Maybe pulling up the oil pressure live data via the OBD port might show brief signal spikes that are triggering the warning. With any luck the cause is a flaky sender or loose/dirty wire connection.

There’s definitely an issue only at immediate startup that either corrects immediately or isn’t reflected in the digital gauge, but I assume it does take some data from an actual pressure sensor somewhere. All gauges are fake on some level because pressure and temperatures aren’t going to be consistent depending on where they’re taken. I’ve had multiple gauges in other vehicles that always read differently because they were reading from different places. My only concern about the digital gauge is if it can read 20psi when it’s really 4 psi or something like that. But I’m never seeing this issue while driving. It’s only at startup after sitting, so it’s only an initial problem. It could be hyper sensitivity to initial state, prior to oil circulating or it could be a legit issue not reflected in the digital gauge. Who knows.

What I do know is that the whole filter issue is a well documented mess. I went by a new dealership which has now been bought by my current dealership I was hoping to leave. They didn’t have any ideas. There’s no current TSBs on this apparently. They can’t even tell me if any of the related parts (oil pump, sensor, etc) fall under the powertrain warranty. So I’d have to go in and cross my fingers that their guessing game isn’t going to be at my expense. Before I do that, I’ve been reading a lot of threads on the JL and Ram forums. I’m going to recheck the torque on the filter, and make sure it’s seated and also make sure it’s not leaking or cracked. I think seating is probably more of the issue than actual torque. Some folks have reported these filters actually failing after several thousand miles. Of course that could be another game of telephone so who knows. I may just change my oil again and see if that helps. I hate that’s there’s no real way to tell if the truck is low on oil unless it’s really low and I don’t like just adding half a quart for the hell of it. This is the first Jeep, first vehicle really, I’ve owned where you couldn’t really judge things at all by the dipstick beyond oil/no oil. I used to add oil to my TJ based on the dipstick. But this is the first vehicle I’ve owned that it wasn’t obvious that an oil pressure warning wasn’t actually a true oil pressure issue instead of just software bugs.

This is a great engine, but like so much stuff now, it’s tainted by the flaky bullshit that’s bolted to it and buggy software. And this in an environment where dealerships really aren’t qualified or equipped to diagnose and fix problems when they involve computer managed anything without mama OEM directing the whole process. And fixing currently owned vehicles isn’t the OEMs priority. Working software isn’t a priority for software companies anymore.

 

[22EcoDs]

@Wolf Island Diver I had the low oil pressure go off on mine after parking on an incline for about 1 hour after I had it pretty hot. I imagine rundown and the angle resulted in pressure not building as fast. I pulled down. Checked the level after waiting 2 min for drain down an it was on the lower part of the hash marks. I've added half a quart and now I'm at 3/4 on the hash. I noticed my hot idle is 19/20 psi. I can be cruising 50-55 mph with 30-35 psi on the cluster. What's your hot idle pressure ?

 

[Vtur]

Are you running an oem filter? What's your psi at idle fully warmed up?

 

[Wolf Island Diver]

@Wolf Island Diver I had the low oil pressure go off on mine after parking on an incline for about 1 hour after I had it pretty hot. I imagine rundown and the angle resulted in pressure not building as fast. I pulled down. Checked the level after waiting 2 min for drain down an it was on the lower part of the hash marks. I've added half a quart and now I'm at 3/4 on the hash. I noticed my hot idle is 19/20 psi. I can be cruising 50-55 mph with 30-35 psi on the cluster. What's your hot idle pressure ?

Right around 17-20 PSI. Those pics were cold idle, btw. Pressure seems normal/good compared to what I notice it usually is. I’ve never been able to see oil on the hash marks to the extent that I was confident where the oil level was. I always see oil on the top and bottom areas of the dip stick and not on the hashes. I’m going to check it tomorrow cold and see what I see.

I talked to a family member who’s a GM mechanic and diesel engine specialist. He said about 15 years ago GM has an issue with its oil pressure senders that resulted in the same exact symptoms. He joked he wouldn’t be surprised if FCA is using the old ones GM threw away.

 

[Wolf Island Diver]

Are you running an oem filter? What's your psi at idle fully warmed up?

OEM filter purchased from one of the Mopar online retailers that’s just a front for a dealer, e.g., Mopar wholesale parts, etc. My dealer wanted $150 for the filter. I’m running Penzoil Euro. I changed the oil myself a few months ago. My dealer wanted something like $500 for that and they spill half the oil and don’t install the filters correctly. I had an immediate low pressure warning after changing the oil, but good pressure at the gauge. I turned off the engine, turned it back on and the code was gone. It’s been trouble free until a few weeks ago.

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