This is on my beloved 240 that's been in the family since it was new, so we're a little worried.

What started it
The other day, the oil pressure light started coming on at idle - just flickering on and off. It got worse and slowly started requiring more and more RPM to turn it off. I quickly ruled out the wiring by running another to the rear of the panel as well as checking the wire for continuity. Mechanical Oil pressure gauge confirmed this showing 12psi at warm idle - dropped from around 30psi at cold. At this point, I parked it.


What has been done
Oil pump was replaced with one from Napa (some swede parts brand) along with new orings (from IPD) for the rigid feed line, an a oil separator box hose (from IPD) and a new pan gasket. The new electronic sender was mounted on a 1ft stainless braided line - the only simple thing I can possibly think of is that there is air in the line. I've turned it down to let all the bubbles come out, but the mechanical and electronic are showing the same readings.

After the repair
Car has 2.5bar at idle when cold, quickly goes up to 3 around 2000rpm when cold. Once warmed up (interstate driving) it shows 2 bar at 2000rpm and 2.5bar at 3000 rpm. Idles at just over 1.1-1.2 bar when warmed fully.


I'm running fresh castrol 10w-30. Kinda at a loss here.... is there anything else I should check? It seems like it may be something other than the oil pump, because the improvement wasn't that significant. The car has 300,000+ mi on it - probably around 320,000. It went a couple years with a broken odo :/

What is there to check? I shouldn't be having bearing issues with this little mileage! Should I park it????