Dangerdave Posted March 21, 2006 Share Posted March 21, 2006 Hey, Figured it was time to turn to the gurus, I'm stumped. As my title states I have a 93 AWD Impreza 1.8 280,000 kms, with low to no oil pressure. Did a mechanical test read 5 psi at idle 15-20 at 3000 rpm. Pulled the oil pan and found the remnants of a spring you would find inside of an oil seal and a broken, very thin metal washer. I was going through the manual and can't find these pieces as part of the oil pump or pressure check valve, the oil was otherwise very clean. If the spring I found was from an oil seal the car would have to be bleeding oil to lead to pressure that low right? It only has the typical high-mileage weeps. Best guess at this point is that the parts are unrelated to my low oil pressure problem. I've read some guys with GL's having similiar problems, but I haven't been able to dig any of those posts up. Just looking for other possibilities to investigate. Thanks for any advice, Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subeman90 Posted March 21, 2006 Share Posted March 21, 2006 I'm thinking it is the spring from the relief valve on the oil pump. I haven't had one infront of me in a while... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cookie Posted March 21, 2006 Share Posted March 21, 2006 Pull the front off the engine and inspect the oil pump and reseal it. Good time to do a main seal and all the other stuff too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dangerdave Posted March 22, 2006 Author Share Posted March 22, 2006 I'll check it out this weekend. How, and with what do I reseal the pump with? I've never had one off or apart before. Thanks, Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted March 22, 2006 Share Posted March 22, 2006 is this an EA82 or an EJ18? the oil pump reseal is straight forward, involves new seals and o-rings. unbolt the oil pump, replace the seals/gasket and bolt it back on with some appropriately placed sealant (i recommend anaerobic). i think yours is an EJ18 but i'm not sure, some early 90's subaru's have EA82. totally different oil pumps. can you post a picture of the spring? those of us that have torn these motors apart might be able to pinpoint it if we see it. oil pump is the only likely candidate i can think of. i can't recall the EJ18 having a spring in the oil pump, but i've never looked closely. i think you're already on the right track though, this is an oil seal spring. if it is a spring from a seal the seal would still be in place and might not necessarily leak all that much. it should be a cam seal, rear main seal or front crank seal. you have to pull the timing belts to replace the cam seals and crank seal. good time to replace all three and reseal the oil pump...and water pump and new timing belt too depending how old they are. any way, the crank and cam seals are all fairly accessible with the timing belt off. just hope it's not the rear main seal, i think chances are good that it won't be. good luck and have fun. there's some good EJ information on the board here about timing belts, oil pump work if you've never done it before. endwrench.com, subaru's site is helpful as well. good luck and have fun, gary maryland Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted March 22, 2006 Share Posted March 22, 2006 i just see you're asking specifically about how to do the oil pump. it is easy to do, the hard part is removing the timing belt to get to it. if you've never done a timing belt before then you might not do this job. the timing belt isn't all that hard though. crank pulley is typically tight and hard to remove and the cam sprocket bolts are very tricky to get off too. remove valve covers and use a wrench on the cam to hold it in place while removing the cam bolt so the cam doesn't just spin. your engine is non-interference so no worries on damaging anything if you line up the timing belt wrong when reinstalling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subeman90 Posted March 22, 2006 Share Posted March 22, 2006 its an ej18 gary.... which is the same style as the ej22's that you have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
idosubaru Posted March 22, 2006 Share Posted March 22, 2006 copy that, i thought all impreza's were EJ but get confused on which had the EA in the early 90's. thanks for the clarification. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
genesis1 Posted March 22, 2006 Share Posted March 22, 2006 have you actually checked the seal on the oil pump because that might do the job as far as you losing pressure...but that spring has got me stumped??? i have never really heard of that kind of thing ending up in your oil pan..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cookie Posted March 22, 2006 Share Posted March 22, 2006 A spring can migrate from a seal, often during installation of a new seal. It is possible that the oil pump screws are loose on the back too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dangerdave Posted March 23, 2006 Author Share Posted March 23, 2006 Sorry I didn't get back to this post sooner, I got really busy with school. Thank-you for the information on resealing the pump. I'm going to try to get to it as soon as classes end next week. I dont have the spring anymore but it was a one inch piece of exactly what you'd see inside an oil seal. I also found the two broken halves of that washer. Had an inside diameter of about an inch, inch and a quarter outside. I looked at the oil pump diagram and did not see either. Would a blown seal cause the engine to lose pressure almost completely? I'm really not sure. It's tough to speculate, but I wonder if those pieces are even related to the low oil pressure problem? Might just be spare players in the "high-mileage" game. haha. Thanks again for all the responses, I'll keep ya posted. Dave Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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