Oh NO !!!!! TSB on the LS3 oil pump

[yotaman96]

Originally Posted by maxdmax

I just finished up installing the Melling HV 10296 oil pump. Test drove the car about 25 miles and it seems OK at this point. I apparently am a one of the lucky ones this time!

How many miles were on your car when the pump went out?

[POWERFREAK]

anyone know if there's a certain vin # range that's been affected? or should we all just hope ours don't fail?

[Nmbr1gmfan]

Originally Posted by maxdmax

I just finished up installing the Melling HV 10296 oil pump. Test drove the car about 25 miles and it seems OK at this point. I apparently am a one of the lucky ones this time!

You can see the stuck valve in the oil pump from the back, its a comon issue for LS pumps. Or pull the plug the spring will fall out, if the cup wont come out with a magnet its stuck.

[maxdmax]

Originally Posted by yotaman96

How many miles were on your car when the pump went out?

My car has right at 30,000 miles on it.

Originally Posted by POWERFREAK

anyone know if there's a certain vin # range that's been affected? or should we all just hope ours don't fail?

My car is one of the RPO cars and a pretty low vin 12,XXX

Originally Posted by Nmbr1gmfan

You can see the stuck valve in the oil pump from the back, its a comon issue for LS pumps. Or pull the plug the spring will fall out, if the cup wont come out with a magnet its stuck.

OH yea it was stuck, a magnet would not budge it. I had to push it out through the other side to get it loose. The sad thing you can not see any reason for it being stuck like that. The oil looked great and there was nothing I could see to make it do this. The new pump seems to have about 10 psi more pressure than the old pump!

I think there are a few lessons on this. First use a good grade synthetic oil, this may have saved my motor. My pump stuck exactly like the TSB stated drove the car, let it cool for a short period then it stuck. It was started 4 or 5 times trying to diagnose for less than 5 seconds, believe your eyes keep the starts to a minimum and just replace the pump, it is a good idea anyway. Look at your DIC every time you first start your car, I just happened to be looking right at it and shut it off in about 2 or 3 seconds and called a rollback. After my experience with the dealer if you car is highly modded it is probably too much for the dealer anyway. They would have never understood how to put the pinned crank pulley back on and I would have gotten another GM oil pump. I tried to tell them, but when they heard the Maggie back toothed belt they thought it was main bearings. LOL Just take a day and fix it if you have the tools and know how or take it to someone that you trust to do the job.

[babaron]

Forgive me if this has already been covered, but if I see the oil warning come on, I am normally going to stop the engine right away and tow it to the dealer. Since it seems that GM is not recalling for this oil pump issue, am I to conclude that if my oil pump freezes up and the low oil light comes on, there's no need to shut the engine off, i.e., no danger of frying the engine?? That would not make sense. It must be that GM is only going to replace the pump in cases where the light comes on and if you don't shut your engine off and it fries, that's your problem. Am I understanding this correctly then?

[calbert1999]

Guess I don't have to worry about that anymore, engine blew already and replaced.

[jmart53]

Would it be a good idea for people with a 2010 Camaro SS that is not stock in anyform whether NA or FI to get an aftermarket pump instead of "hoping" the GM will last? Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated... I would rather just replace the GM with an aftermarket (I see people mention Melling...I guess they are good huh? lol)

Thanks!

[calbert1999]

Originally Posted by jmart53

Would it be a good idea for people with a 2010 Camaro SS that is not stock in anyform whether NA or FI to get an aftermarket pump instead of "hoping" the GM will last? Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated... I would rather just replace the GM with an aftermarket (I see people mention Melling...I guess they are good huh? lol)

Thanks!

Anytime I have a problem with a part that needs replacing, I replace it with something else. I think it's pointless to replace bad parts with new bad parts. Just get the best the market has to offer and don't worry about it.

[tkelley]

Had the same thing happen a week ago after I parked for about 45min
and tried to start it (btw: 2011 1ss). Had a flatbed comeout to drop it off at the dealer. Tow truck driver was a douche and told me there's nothing
wrong with it, except a sensor. I told him not to start it to get it on the
truck...he said there's no issue in starting it since it's only a sensor.
When I started pushing it to the back of his tow truck, he got the drift.
I even wrote a note and taped it on the steering wheel stating "don't start, no oil pressure". btw, It ran for about 2 seconds before I turned it off after hearing the alarm.

So the dealer calls me the next day and says "after diagnosing your car, it looks like the oil pump is at fault and the motor is very loud. We'll know more when we pull the head off the driver's side" Next day they call and
say "Your motor is beyond repair, we will be ordering a new engine from GM...It'll take a better part of week to 10 days to finish"

I bet the tow truck driver started it up when he got to the dealer.
Anyway, I'm thankful they're fixing it. They did tell me they have never
heard of any problem like this before...

[mikeSS]

so annoying when someone tells you nothing is wrong when really they dont know what they are talking about. now you need a new motor .

ya i feel this oil pump issue is on the uncommon list of things to happen for the most part. but still it seems a decent amount of people here talk about it.

[427-6spd]

Add me to the list of pump failure. Ran fine the day prior next day on start up no pressure. Check ball stuck open per the dealer.

[RiCorvette]

Do any of you that suffered oil pump failure also have a Catch Can? If so, did you have an unusually large amount of oil captured? I'm having to empty my CC (Elite Engineering) every 500 miles.
Just looking to see if there is a correlation.

[427-6spd]

No catch can here, car is back on the road no weird sounds or issues. Its another check ball failure that dropped this pump.

[BOSS_HOSS]

Amazing how one of the most vital components of the engine fails with such low miles...happened to me idling in the garage...swapped with the Melling 10296.

If you do switch to the melling, I was told by GM Customer Service that no engine gaskets are covered under warranty now because the increase in oil pressure from the pump...Riiiigggghhhht...thats why my oil cooler gasket started leaking...all because of the melling pump...