I don’t usually write anything about my annual service, as it’s usually a non-event, with the usual replacement of the odd consumable or two.
But this time, I wanted to specifically call out 1 item of interest.
I forget where I read it (probably FB), so can’t credit the author, but I remember reading about Cerb owners who had been experiencing erratic oil pressure, and the fault had been traced to an inexpensive easy-to-replace spring that had often snapped, or got very tired.
I hadn’t been experiencing any oil pressure issues, but in the name of prevantive maintenance, I figured I might as well grab one of these Oil Pressure Relief Valve springs and add it to the to-do list when it goes in for its service.
I picked my car up yesterday after its service, and was told the spring was replaced, and while the original spring wasn’t snapped, it had lost ~2mm of height.
So how does this all translate to oil pressures now?
old spring psi | new spring psi | |
Cold idle | 52 | 64+ |
Hot idle | 14 | 18 |
motorway cruising in 5th | 45 | 54 |
Assuming higher oil pressure is a good thing, then you can see that the renewed spring certainly produces higher pressure.
My search turned up 2 springs possibilities, one small and one large. £8 and £2 respectively. Not knowing which one I would need, I just got both (available from the usual places).
What surprised me, is that replacing this spring isn’t part of the service schedule.