cyberkev
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- January 3, 2014
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- London/Essex
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 1999 Explorer V6 SOHC 4.0
This is more a bit of advice and my experience on how I've overcome the dreaded camchain rattle and in the last day a Low Oil pressure light.
I bought the car (UK Model 1999 4.0 SOHC with all the extras and only one owner from new) around a year and a half ago and at the time it was on 89k miles with Full Ford Service history.
It was due a service and a had a bit of a camchain noise on startup so I put in some 5w40 thinking that it would be thin to get to the tensioners on startup and stop the loud metallic tensioner camchain type noise on kickdown/high revs on the motorway. This mostly worked and was a lot quiter at high revs last winter but still had a slight camchain rattle (front) on startup for 5 seconds if left standing for a few weeks. I therefore fitted a front tensioner and the ford oilway straw type modification to keep the oil in the front tenstioner. This then completely fixed the camchain noise until around 95k miles when it slowly started to return on startup if left for a week or so.
It was then in constant use over the summer and did another 3500 miles and all seemed fine. It then sat for around 7 weeks unused.
Over the last 6 weeks or so when the weather has turned cold the camchain noise progressed a bit to be noisy on idle when cold (rather than a rattle that went completely in the first 5 seconds like when I got the car). this was followed a week ago by the oil pressure 'guage' dropping to zero after warming up and at 2-3.5k revs under load (accompanied by the camchain rattle which was pretty constant all rpm). The oil pressure guage then worsened to only read occasionally on idle when quite cold and then not at all. It only did around 10 miles like this as I was concered it was telling the truth !
It turns out the oil pressure guage is not a guage at all and simply a pressure switch. I got a pressure switch (just in case) and some good quality 5w30 fully synthetic and good quality oil filter.
My plan was to do these one at a time to see if the switch was faulty (as the car drove fine apart from the slight rattle and oil guage).
I decided to do the oil change first. I did a flush at the same time. What came out was quite sludgy and thick after 9k miles. Upon refilling with 5w30 everything was perfect. The Oil pressure now reads good at all revs and temperatures and engine loads and there is no sign of any camchain/tensioner noise anywhere! The new pressure switch is still in it's box !
I think what this proves is that these SOHC cologne engines don't like 5w40 (especially when warmed up coupled with cold weather) as it is too thick for them to get to the tensioners when warm and they become noisy and the thick oil is too much to flow well enough for the pressure switch to read pressure. Also may prove they make oil dirty quite quickly and 9k miles is just too long.
I now plan on doing oil changes at 3-5k miles with fully synthetic 5w30 like I did with my 1994 Range Rover V8.
For the moment at least its the quietest its ever been even with this thinner oil and with the new tensioner and regular changes should extend it's life somewhat at it's quite young at 98k miles. I plan on doing the rear camchain tensioner sometimes but there hasn't been any noise from this so far (fingers crossed).
Comments appreciated if anyone agrees with my findings !
I bought the car (UK Model 1999 4.0 SOHC with all the extras and only one owner from new) around a year and a half ago and at the time it was on 89k miles with Full Ford Service history.
It was due a service and a had a bit of a camchain noise on startup so I put in some 5w40 thinking that it would be thin to get to the tensioners on startup and stop the loud metallic tensioner camchain type noise on kickdown/high revs on the motorway. This mostly worked and was a lot quiter at high revs last winter but still had a slight camchain rattle (front) on startup for 5 seconds if left standing for a few weeks. I therefore fitted a front tensioner and the ford oilway straw type modification to keep the oil in the front tenstioner. This then completely fixed the camchain noise until around 95k miles when it slowly started to return on startup if left for a week or so.
It was then in constant use over the summer and did another 3500 miles and all seemed fine. It then sat for around 7 weeks unused.
Over the last 6 weeks or so when the weather has turned cold the camchain noise progressed a bit to be noisy on idle when cold (rather than a rattle that went completely in the first 5 seconds like when I got the car). this was followed a week ago by the oil pressure 'guage' dropping to zero after warming up and at 2-3.5k revs under load (accompanied by the camchain rattle which was pretty constant all rpm). The oil pressure guage then worsened to only read occasionally on idle when quite cold and then not at all. It only did around 10 miles like this as I was concered it was telling the truth !
It turns out the oil pressure guage is not a guage at all and simply a pressure switch. I got a pressure switch (just in case) and some good quality 5w30 fully synthetic and good quality oil filter.
My plan was to do these one at a time to see if the switch was faulty (as the car drove fine apart from the slight rattle and oil guage).
I decided to do the oil change first. I did a flush at the same time. What came out was quite sludgy and thick after 9k miles. Upon refilling with 5w30 everything was perfect. The Oil pressure now reads good at all revs and temperatures and engine loads and there is no sign of any camchain/tensioner noise anywhere! The new pressure switch is still in it's box !
I think what this proves is that these SOHC cologne engines don't like 5w40 (especially when warmed up coupled with cold weather) as it is too thick for them to get to the tensioners when warm and they become noisy and the thick oil is too much to flow well enough for the pressure switch to read pressure. Also may prove they make oil dirty quite quickly and 9k miles is just too long.
I now plan on doing oil changes at 3-5k miles with fully synthetic 5w30 like I did with my 1994 Range Rover V8.
For the moment at least its the quietest its ever been even with this thinner oil and with the new tensioner and regular changes should extend it's life somewhat at it's quite young at 98k miles. I plan on doing the rear camchain tensioner sometimes but there hasn't been any noise from this so far (fingers crossed).
Comments appreciated if anyone agrees with my findings !