04 Silverado Oil Pressure Problem

Bowtie4466 · March 17, 2022

Hello all, I am new here, but have always owned Chevy/GMC trucks. I have an 04 Silverado 1500 with a 5.3. One day last week, my son went to go start the truck and got a light that the oil pressure was low. The gauge was reading around 5 psi. Before that, it always had normal pressure and has run fine with no engine noise whatsoever. It actually does not burn oil either. I wasn't home at the time, so told him to just leave it alone until I got home. That evening I started it up for just a few seconds to see if I could figure anything out. The engine sounded normal - no ticking or odd noises, but the oil pressure was still low. Turned it off and had it towed to a shop. When trying to start it for the tow truck driver, it would not stay running. I didn't want to damage anything, so we winched it onto the truck. Long story short, the shop called and said I needed a new engine. This is a shop that I have used for 5+ years and always trusted their opinion and pricing has always been fair. However, this has me second guessing that. Any thoughts? The dipstick showed full of oil each time I checked it, so it has oil. I thought maybe it was something simple like the oil pump or something related. Here is the other kicker - they quoted me $5,900 to replace the engine with a used engine!! This just doesn't sound right...any thoughts or advice would be greatly appreciated. I am already planning to get a second opinion somewhere else.

diyer2 · March 17, 2022

Known problem. Google it.

Start here?

CamGTP · March 17, 2022

2004's don't have a screen, that is not his problem.

I'd want the truck hooked up to an external oil pressure gauge to see if the oil pressure is indeed near 0psi. If it is with a mechanical gauge then it needs to be taken apart to see why or replaced.

txab · March 18, 2022

^^^ Agreed

diyer2 · March 18, 2022

Thanks for correcting me.

dsr611 · March 18, 2022

As mentioned earlier, check pressure with manual pressure gauge. If it proves to actually be low pressure, you might want to check/replace the pickup tube o-ring. Oil pressure on our 05 Tahoe started falling off a while back but was still over 30#. I got in to drive it to work one day and pressure wouldn't get over 20#. I turned around and went back to the house and drove my truck instead. Dropped the oil pan, removed the pickup tube and the pickup tube o-ring came apart in 3 pieces. Replaced the o-ring and oil pan gasket and oil pressure is now running close to 50 at cold idle and a little over 40 once warmed up and running down interstate.

Bowtie4466 · March 27, 2022

Thanks for the input. The shop was able to get it running and now it starts up and runs like normal except that the oil pressure is still hanging down around 5psi. They seemed like they were really busy and didn't want to mess with it any more unless I wanted to replace the engine. I checked the oil again yesterday out of curiosity and it is at the full level on the dipstick. I started it up for about 30 sec and it started and ran like normal - no weird noises or anything - just the low oil pressure. Having it towed to a second shop tomorrow.