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OT 04 Durango

T

Tyler Jackson

Member
I hate posting other topics besides tractor stuff on here but you guys are so helpful and speedy with responses it kills me not to. I was drivin my 04 Durango the other day and the oil light came on. I got home checked the oil and it's in the safe zone and there's no leak. It's the 4.7 v8 with 10700 miles on the clock. I've owned it since new and it's never had a problem besides having to put new lifters in. It's about 400 miles from needing an oil change so that's firat on the to do list to see if the idiot light goes off but what do you guys think it might be? I was thinkin (hoping) that the vescosity of the oil changed since it went from 40 last week to negative 5 here in Indiana. My other guess is a sensor since the mileage is gettin up there. I really appreciate any thoughts
 
Hi, Tyler.

I assume by "oil light" you mean the oil pressure light, in which case you should have turned off the engine immediately. The oil level may be O.K. on the dipstick, but that's not what counts because the oil has to be pumped under pressure to keep the bearings lubricated. No pressure = destroyed bearings (regardless of how much oil is in the oil pan), and pretty quickly.

It sounds like the oil pump may have failed or maybe the system became plugged somewhere. Here's hoping that you're right and it's only a sensor failure or somehow weather-related.

Mark W. in MI
 
You should install a calibrated pressure gauge to see what your oil pressure is. It could be a bad sending unit. If you didn't hear any noise from the engine your engine may be ok. If it has hydraulic lifters they usually start making a noise from lack of oil and you want check the cause pdq. Hal
 
is it a red light or yellow light? If red probably related to oil pressure, could mean you have none or the pressure sending unit went bad. If yellow probably related to oil level sensor or some kind of maintanence reminder. If you actually have no oil pressure engine will start knocking within a few minutes.Sometimes in very cold weather you can create excessive oil pressure and damage sender.
 
Everything works off the computer, so take it to the dealer or a reputable repair shop and have them check the codes. Why did it need lifters? The 4.7 is one engine I have never seen or heard about any problems with. I have the same engine in my 2002 Grand Cherokee. Is that really 10700 or 107000?
 
And, that's really not an idiot light as it has an oil pressure gage--what does it read?
 
Sorry yea its 107000. They went bad at about 88000. The dealer said it was something about the curing of the metal. My brothers new van had the same issue. It started worrying me because I did some googleing and everything I came up with said the 4.7s have real bad sludge issues. It starts with the oil light then the engine starts knockin and you have drop 6000 on a new engine. yikes! The oil light is red so I guess I'll take it straight to the dealer. Thanks for the feedback
 
Besides this and the lifters it's a real nice ride. Use to pull a speed boat and trailer with no problem. I'm hopin to upgrade to a newer cummins sometime though
 
Ha I keep addin on. It doesn't have a guage. that's one thing I don't like about this thing. The chevy we have has all the guages you would need to get a spaceship off the ground. The Durangos got gas, temp, speed and tach. It didn't get hot so idk. I hope it's nothin serious or I might be prematurely upgrade to the cummins ha
 
Put a 4BTA Cummins in the Durango, you got your diesel power and your nice ride.

Check out 4btswaps.com, I haven't been there in a while but when I was there were guys claiming 30 MPG out of Suburbans.
 
You can install a pressure gauge yourself. You can remove the sending unit and install the gauge there in the oil gallery. You may want to use a short piece of hose with the gauge to get the gauge out where you can read it. You can use low pressure or high pressure hose like in this picture that I made with reuseable ends. Hal
a27854.jpg
 
We worked on a 4.7 a afew years ago that had a similar problem the oil pump screen and pickup tube were gummed right up but that was from a severe lack of maintenance. Also make sure you run an injector cleaner and I would also suggest adding an inline filter as there is only a sock in the tank. We see these and 3.7 heads in the shop quite a bit (number one cylinder heads two years in a row) due to the carbon building up on the intake valve to the point of sticking the valve open and causing a misfire mostly due to lack of fuel filtration and no valve rotators.
 
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