Ok, here we go. I have a Volvo s40 2001. The oil warning light comes on after about 6 to 10 miles of driving. If I turn the engine off for 10 minutes or so the light will reset and I can go another 6 to 10 miles.

I have dropped the pan and cleaned the sump area, I have changed the Pcv oil trap, changed the sending unit, changed the oil twice, flushed the engine and added marvel mystery oil. I don't believe that there is actual low oil pressue in that I have driven the car well over 60 miles with the light on. I Have a p602 trouble code which mentions low oil pressure and possible clogged oil line.

Any ideas.

 

Did you replace the oil filter when you did the engine oil change / flush out.
Wondering if a collapsed or faulty paper element in the filter could account for the problem you are describing.

 

Did you measure oil pressure?

 

+1 Only way to know for certain.

 

I did not check the actual oil pressure. I forgot to mention that after reset the car will idle forever without the oil pressure light coming on. If the pressure were low it would seem that the light would most likely come at idle. Wondering if the VVT might have something to do with it.

I did change the filter. The one that I originally change seemed to have been crushed. I will recheck the new filter and get a set of guages to check the actual pressure. Sure wish Volvo would put oil pressure guages in as OEM.

Thanks!

 

In your other post you mention you've replaced the sender. Assuming you have good oil pressure before replacing all those parts was kind of a backwards way to go about it. You may have good pressure at idle, that doesn't mean you have good pressure under load.

What code do you have? P602 is not a code, missing a number there

 

The code is P0602. I acutally got 3 codes off of the computer, didn't think the others were related. The other two are P0700 and P0015. I started this with the idea that the oil system was dirty which is why I did not change the sending unit intially. I am down to I guess trying to consider if the mains are bad, the oil pump is bad or the system has a clogged oil line. I don't have an oil pressure test guage, so I am in the process of installing an oil pressure guage. It just doesn't make sense to me (I am not a mechanic, especially a Volvo mechanic). It would seem that the engine would have given up by now. There is one other item that I feel could be related. Although only running a tick above half-way, it seems that the engine runs a little hotter than normal. I discovered a small coolant leak that I have since fixed but it still seems that the fans come on a little more than normal and I don't remember them running much after the car is turned off.

Thanks for your input.

 

So far so good. The problem seemed to get better and better as we went along, as though the engine flush and marvel oil seemed to be making the situation better. I feel as if I either had a bum oil filter (fram) that caused the initial problem and allowed some of the oil ducts to get clogged. The car would go a little longer at each test until this morning when I drove it at least twice as far as I had the previous test (15 milies) and there was no oil light. The way the car was running and sounding it did not feel like an oil pumo or bearings. Fingers crossed.

Thanks for all of the feedback!

Lou

 

Interesting development re the oil filter and promising.
Had a gut feeling it might be a factor.
I don't think using cheap or aftermarket oil filters is a good idea with Volvo's especially given their temperamental PCV clogging up issues. Cheap filters do not seem to affect some cars much but not sure with Volvo ??
Hope it is solved for you anyway.