Thread: Is my td5 engine cactus? Oil light is on!

Originally Posted by SPROVER

went to accelerate and noticed a funny noise from the engine.

Thats usually bad

Originally Posted by SPROVER

As I looked for a place to quickly pull over I saw that the oil light was on.

And thats usually worse.


unplug the Ecu, bar the engine over by hand a couple of times to make sure its free and then you have 2 choices.

1. pull the rocker cover off and work an endoscope down the front of the timing cover to eyeball the pump bolt

2. pull the oil pressure sender then manualy trigger the starter to check oil flow before fitting up an oilpressure gauge in place of the sender, crank it and if it goes over 15psi on the starter reset and restart.

Ok..... so I've taken the fan and shroud off. Rocker cover is also off. I am able to still turn the engine over with a breaker bar.. so that's one positive I hope. Oil level is perfect and I haven't lost any water .
Checked all intercooler hoses as a precaution and they are all good.

Just out of curiosity are you able to see the oil pump bolt if you look down between the timing chain? Or will it be sump out to check? Even though my money is on that

Originally Posted by SPROVER

Ok..... so I've taken the fan and shroud off. Rocker cover is also off. I am able to still turn the engine over with a breaker bar.. so that's one positive I hope. Oil level is perfect and I haven't lost any water .
Checked all intercooler hoses as a precaution and they are all good.

Just out of curiosity are you able to see the oil pump bolt if you look down between the timing chain? Or will it be sump out to check? Even though my money is on that

yes but you need an endoscopic camera to do so.


if you take the oil pressure sender out and turn the engine over by hand you should get some leakage after 10 or 12 turns.

Ok.... so I finally managed to get the sump off today. I'll let the picture tell the story! .. I have a new oil pump bolt and genuine oil sump gasket do put back on hopefully tomorrow. Fingers crossed there isn't any under lying problems. There was no metal in the sump and the motor still turned over easily enough.

Wish me luck!20200829_142852.jpg

Good luck.

I'm just amazed it's taken over 300K's for it to come loose! Where they ever covered in a recall?

Originally Posted by knuts2au

I'm just amazed it's taken over 300K's for it to come loose! Where they ever covered in a recall?

Yep I was amazed as well... the engine is nearly at 400,000 km. What annoys me most is when I had a Landrover mechanic put a new sump gasket on 10,000km ago, I asked him if he checked the oil pump bolt?
His reply was " if it hasn't come out yet it won't be coming out now ". He never checked it! I'll be having words with him this week.

Originally Posted by SPROVER

His reply was " if it hasn't come out yet it won't be coming out now ". He never checked it! I'll be having words with him this week.

That's always the theory I've run with. Might be worth checking now.