Low oil pressure at idle and Mivec mode not cutting in 4G92 MIVEC help!

[vr2turbo]

Yup, when I used thicker viscosity also feel the engine sluggish, mine even thicker 10w60 Castrol RS those days, now is called Castrol edge. After that went back to 5w40 and now on 15w40....lol

 

[Nightstalker1993]

Hi, sorry for the delay in my reply, been busy with work, and had to do a short overseas trip.

I did the oil and filter change, helped a little.

U then got the gauge checked and re-calibrated, it now reads just over 1 bar when the engine is hot and at tick-over.

The oil pressure looks fine as the rev's rise and for normal and faster driving.

The red dashboard old light flickers occasionally when the revs at tick-over drop really low, mostly only when the engine is hot but it is cool and the air-con is off so there is no load on the engine.

The Mivec I think is working, but I think the thicker oil I used for this oil change is making it slightly less responsive at higher revs.

I will probably do another oil change in about 5000KM and go back to 10W40 fully synthetic. I am on 5W50 fully synthetic now. I will keep on top of regular oil changes and maybe this will help as the engine may have been sitting around for a while before I bought it and got gummed up.

I did enquirer about replacing the oil pump, but its a big job so will see how things go for now.

Worse case is I will need a bottom end rebuild at some stage but now there is no sounds that suggest this is needed yet.

Just part of the fun of running a higher performance JDM engine that is almost 20 years old, and came from Japan with no history I guess :rolleyes:

Been on a few mid distance drives now and overall the car is running fine.

Thanks for all the support and suggestions from this forum, helps a lot to have a resource like this that is in English

cheers

So at higher RPM how high is your oil pressure? On my own car according to the oil pressure sensor mounted on the stock location(head), I'm only getting around 2.5-3bar oil pressure at 8000rpm and the mivec i feel is definitely working, so it can work even at lower pressure range haha.

Changing oil pump is slightly more involving than a timing belt change. Basically you have to remove the timing belt, main pulley, oil sump and the oil pump can come out already. Your only trouble would be finding a pump. I just bought a brand new oil pump from Amayama but had not found the time to install it yet. I should be installing my oil pump by the next oil change. I'm using 5w50 as well, but mine is a turbo and have oil squirters as well.

You don't hear the MIVEC switchover on your engine though? No change in the exhaust note?

 

[jay_lancer]

So at higher RPM how high is your oil pressure? On my own car according to the oil pressure sensor mounted on the stock location(head), I'm only getting around 2.5-3bar oil pressure at 8000rpm and the mivec i feel is definitely working, so it can work even at lower pressure range haha.

Changing oil pump is slightly more involving than a timing belt change. Basically you have to remove the timing belt, main pulley, oil sump and the oil pump can come out already. Your only trouble would be finding a pump. I just bought a brand new oil pump from Amayama but had not found the time to install it yet. I should be installing my oil pump by the next oil change. I'm using 5w50 as well, but mine is a turbo and have oil squirters as well.

You don't hear the MIVEC switchover on your engine though? No change in the exhaust note?

Hi, I have never been able to hear the MIVEC cut-over though the exhaust, but I defiantly felt it before, like the engine has a second wind over about 5700 rpm and will then rev round to nearly 8000 rpm, then after the initial problem the engine would not rev past about 5500 rpm.

Now after the oil change, it will rev way past 5700 rpm but not such a marked feeling, maybe due to the heavier oil. That said I haven't been driving it on clear enough roads to let it rev much recently.

At higher rev's the oil pressure rises to the top of the dial, about the 7 bar mark I think, I have to drive to Bangkok on the Motorway tonight so hopefully if the traffic is light I will be able to drive fast enough to see, will pay more attention to the gauge

cheers

 

[jay_lancer]

The sensor for the gauge is on a sandwich plate where the oil filter is located, the dash board light is on the OEM sensor, and is wired to the original dashboard (original engine was a 4G18) BTW

cheers

 

[vr2turbo]

Hi, I have never been able to hear the MIVEC cut-over though the exhaust, but I defiantly felt it before, like the engine has a second wind over about 5700 rpm and will then rev round to nearly 8000 rpm, then after the initial problem the engine would not rev past about 5500 rpm.

Now after the oil change, it will rev way past 5700 rpm but not such a marked feeling, maybe due to the heavier oil. That said I haven't been driving it on clear enough roads to let it rev much recently.

At higher rev's the oil pressure rises to the top of the dial, about the 7 bar mark I think, I have to drive to Bangkok on the Motorway tonight so hopefully if the traffic is light I will be able to drive fast enough to see, will pay more attention to the gauge

cheers

You aiming at high end speed since you mention need clear enough road. Can't you test by revving to your tachometer limit through the gears?

 

[Nightstalker1993]

The sensor for the gauge is on a sandwich plate where the oil filter is located, the dash board light is on the OEM sensor, and is wired to the original dashboard (original engine was a 4G18) BTW

cheers

Yeah that seems to be about right. I need to relocate my pressure sensor onto the sandwich plate as well to see the difference between pressure at the head and at the block.

Hi, I have never been able to hear the MIVEC cut-over though the exhaust, but I defiantly felt it before, like the engine has a second wind over about 5700 rpm and will then rev round to nearly 8000 rpm, then after the initial problem the engine would not rev past about 5500 rpm.

Now after the oil change, it will rev way past 5700 rpm but not such a marked feeling, maybe due to the heavier oil. That said I haven't been driving it on clear enough roads to let it rev much recently.

At higher rev's the oil pressure rises to the top of the dial, about the 7 bar mark I think, I have to drive to Bangkok on the Motorway tonight so hopefully if the traffic is light I will be able to drive fast enough to see, will pay more attention to the gauge

cheers

That's crazy pressure man! Should be well more than enough for the Mivec to kick in! Did you test the solenoid manually by connecting it to 12v and hearing for the audible 'click'? Are you using the Mivec or Mivec RS engine? There SHOULD be an audible switchover when the Mivec engages, unless your exhaust is too silent :sleep:

Would recommend you to change back to 40w oil though, but honestly I don't think the oil grade would affect the power by much. As vr2turbo mentioned, can't do a 1st-2nd gear pull to redline?

 

[jay_lancer]

So after a long break from looking at my Lancer, cut a long story short my best friend in Thailand father was sick and I took over looking after his business while he was out of the country. (as well as doing my own work) so had little time for hobby, and also had use of his car (a stock toyota vios) but now he is back and I have got things back on track with my Lancer project.

I have found a great Mitsu shop not far from where I live, the owner races a Lancer F-style with a 4G92 MIVEC and he took about 15 minutes to diagnose and fix the problem with my MIVEC solenoid.

He also had done many big brake conversions using Subaru 4 pot calipers, custom adapters and bigger disks, so I went ahead with getting Subaru front brakes which I already posted about here:

http://www.zerotohundred.com/forums/index.php?threads/brake-upgrade-lancer-cs3a.466151/page-3

the problem with the MIVEC solenoid which he thinks was also causing the erratic oil pressure readings was the MIVEC solenoid had come loose and was actually moving about in the head! lucky no other damage so he put it all back together, also checked everything else and did an oil and filter change and the car is running great again.

Hopefully will stay that way as I have tickets to go and watch the MotoGP bike race in Thailand next weekend and that is a 6 hour drive each way, I do have use of another vehicle to take (a ford ranger pickup) but my heart says take the Lancer LOL

some pics of the day spent at his shop, including some of his race car and other projects

cam cover off my engine

oil changed :)

brakes (as detailed in the other thread)

another customer car

owner of the shops 4G92 MIVEC racing Lancer