Car is a 2000 Corolla.
Is there an oil pump? I see some posts here where the engine fails due to no oil and everytime it’s related to the drain plug or a leak. And during timing chain replacement, there is a recommendation to replace the water pump…but no oil pump?
If there is an oil pump, how come more people do not recommend it to be changed or we don’t see much failures?
All cars have oil pumps, but they’re pretty much the last thing to fail, they’re designed conservatively because of how important they are, and they’re constantly bathed in oil.
#1 - Oil pump failures are rare. And the one’s I’ve seen is because of something else - like excessive sludge.
#2 - On many engines this is NOT an easy job. You might as well replace the engine. You have to tear into the engine to get to the oil pump.
Agree with the others. In over a million miles, have never had an oil pump failure. Change oil regularly and be happy.
Agree with the others. Oil pumps are very basic and robust designs with extreme internal precision being relatively unimportant, simply two impellars interlocked, and they spend their lives constantly being washed with fresh oil.
Low oil pressure problems are caused by other things, generally wear, blockage of a passage, and/or low oil level due to leakage or neglect.
Are you struggling with a low pressure problem?
The bigger question here is why are you replacing the timing chain?
The bigger question here is why are you replacing the timing chain?
Timing chains don’t last for ever. But they should last at least 250k miles. The car is 14 years old. I have 250k miles on my 9 yo Truck. So there’s a change he has enough miles on it that it may need replacing.
Good answer Mike, but I know all that. I’d like to hear from the OP. He/she maybe getting bad advice. The big red flag is the part about the water pump.
I had to replace the chain in my 1989 Toyota truck at 200,000 miles. I consider that normal wear. It isn’t the chain itself that typically fails, but rather the nylon guides and sprockets. Although chains do stretch, and replacing only the nylon-containing parts would be foolhardy.
Although chains do stretch, and replacing only the nylon-containing parts would be foolhardy.
It would be like NOT replacing the Clutch and pressure plate when the throw-out bearing gives out.
Did the old splash lubricated cars have an oil pump. As I recall, the Chevrolet six before 1953 was splash lubricated, but did have an oil pump to direct oil up to the rocker arms because this was an overhead valve engine. However, there were some Hudson engines–the straight 8 and the 6 before it was replaced with a more modern engine in 1948 that were splash lubricated. Since these engines were of the flathead design with the valves in the block, I wonder if they had an oil pump.
I can’t speak for the old pre-'50s engines, but “splash” lubrication generally refers to the method by which the cylinders are lubricated. The crank & rod bearings really need to be pressure fed with a pump. The oil has to be fed under pressure directly to the spaces between the sleeves and the corresponding surfaces.
If I’ve started a controversy on the definition of “splash lubrication”, I apologize. That was not my intent.
I saw the underside of a 1949 Chevrolet engine with the pan removed. There were little scoops that scooped up the oil from the pan and splashed it onto the cylinder walls and lubricated the rod bearings. I don’t think that there were oil passages in the crankshaft. I do know that there was an oil pressure gauge that read from 0 to 30 psi pressure, with 15 being in the middle of the scale. The oil pressure gauge on the 1949 Dodge my parents owned registered from 0 to 80 psi with 40 being in the midscale. The Dodge had full pressure lubrication.
These early Chevrolets had an oil pump to supply lubrication to the rocker arms since it was an overhead valve engine. I am just curious as to whether a flathead engine that does not have full pressure lubrication but depends on the splash system has an oil pump.
Old Briggs& Stratton engines-Kevin
That old 1950 Dodge I drove in my high school years with a flat head six had an oil pressure gauge and an oil filter, so it obviously had an oil pump.
Old Briggs and Stratton lawnmower engines were pure splash, usually with a nylon splash wheel geared to the camshaft to throw oil on everything, like a wet dog shaking itself dry.
@B.L.E–yes those old Chrysler flathead engines did indeed have an oil pump and had full flow oil filters. My 1947 Pontiac flathead 6 had an oil pump, but did not have an oil filter. My parents once owned a1960 Rambler overhead valve 6. It did have an oil pump and full pressure lubrication, but an oil filter was optional and could be installed by the dealer. This was a parital flow system as not all the oil flowed through the filter. My 1955 Pontiac did not have an oil filter–it was an option. I bought the car used and pulled the filter off a wrecked car, removed the block-off plate and installed the filter. It was a full flow system.
The Ford Model T used splash lubrication but with a compression ratio of <4:1 and a red line of <2,000 rpm the engine wasn’t under much stress. And when Henry designed that engine most gasoline engines used a wasted oil system.
I recall an old Chevrolet 6 cylinder with dippers on the rod big ends.That was quite a few years ago.
The 216 CID “stovebolt” Chevrolet six had splash oiling for the rods and pressure oiling to the mains and upper end. There were dipper trays under each crank throw that the oil pump kept filled with oil.
I think the 235 CID stovebolts had a crossdrilled crank for pressure oil to the rods.
John Deere also used a crossdrilled crank and pressure oiling on those old two cylinder “popping johnny” tractors, one in particular that I spent many hours on pulling a disk harrow when I was a teenager.
@Triedaq wrote " I do know that there was an oil pressure gauge that read from 0 to 30 psi pressure…"
If there were a pressure gauge there had to be pump (to produce the pressure measured).
@MikeInNH, wait, I thought timing chains were supposed to be replaced every 100k miles? If I’m accelerating slow and driving carefully (less than 2500rpm) and do oil changes 3 months, can I wait till 250k miles too?
I don’t have any problems with my car, was just curious on why no one recommended the oil pump be changed when a timing chain and water pump was replaced. Now I know why.