02 ford ranger 3.0 oil pressure prob.

[hillbill]

my girlfriend recently purchased a 02 ranger with the 3.0 v6 in it. she has been haveing probs with the oil pressure light flickering when its good and hot and rpms are low. she was directed to a reputable local tech who told her that its a good chance its a worn oil pump.the rig has bout 120 k on it and seems to run good otherwise.he said this is a recurring prob with this rig. what im wondering is if any of you guys out there have heard this or experienced it?if so how hard was it to fix?i looked aT it and doesnt seem to be too bad of a job, pan bolts easy to get at, but possibly maybe have to loosen motor mounts and jack it up a bit to get the pan out.mounts dont look to bad to get at either.would love to hear from someone who knows anything about this prob.

[Lloyd Smale]

I would guess that its more likely you have a little to much clearance in your main bearings from wear then a oil pump being bad. You have to pull your pan off to change the oil pump so before id do it id get some plastic guage and check the bearing clearances on the mains and rods. I guess though the first thing i would do is hook up a real oil pressure guage as it could be something as small as the sending unit for the idiot light being bad.

[gru]

  Have a tech hook  up a mech gauge and find out what the real oil pressure readings are At 120k things shouldn't be wearing out that way Everything out there has 100 plus on it

[Rex in OTZ]

I have a 2000 ford ranger with a 4.0 v-6 that has 18k that has the same problem on start up (Im located 30 miles above the arctic circle on the north west coast of alaska our summers top out in the 70's on a hot week), lately the tempratures been in the mid to high 40's after the engine heats up the oil light goes off and stays off till the engine cools off useing NAPA sae w10-40, I found that when useing sae 0-30 oil that the problem existed evein when plugged in over night during the winter it would start right up with no lifter sound, the dip stick read full and I thought it was sludge in the oil passage to the sending unit
a little shot of marvel mystery oil in the oil filler shortly before oil change I'd run the vehicle a short ways to knock off the funky brown gunk in the inside the filler cap and then the engine worked normally for awhile till it sludges up again, Im not so shure if oil grades produce any more sludge than others, the marveil treatment to de-sludge the crank case at oil change helps.
Its best to get a oil pressure reading on the engine oil pump first before assuming anything!
then go from there!