C70 intermittent oil light

[sumdarkplace]

Just met my girlfriend's uncle, and it turns out he has a C70 T5 Coupe as well :) He also has just bought a spare 2.4T for parts, same as I have. Weird!
He's got an intermittent problem with his oil pressure dropping off and the light coming on. He says he can hear the top end go rattly at tickover when this happens, so I don't think it's a sensor issue. He's suggested a seal on the oil pickup in the sump.

Has anyone else had a similar experience, and if so, is there a fix that doesn't involve a rebuild? Can you get the sump off with the engine in the car?

[JamesT5]

Oil pump could be bad and check your oil level.

[claymore]

yep, you can pull the sump off with the engine in, if I remember there is an issue with new oil pumps, I beleive the fix is to use two o rings instead of just one, but if the car still has the original oil pump it could be down to cheap oil or possibly the oil pickup blocked up with something like instant gasket.

[Harvey]

Just a bit more info required.
Does the oil light come on first thing after start up or or intermittently when it's driven.
If it's intermittently there's a very good chance it's the pick up oil pipe in the sump there's a green set of seals that are used a bit like "O" rings that can over time start letting air into the pick up side of the pump which in turn will froth up the oil and lower the oil pressure even more.
The fault I had was the oil pressure light would just flash up once or twice every 2-3 weeks but never when the engine was cold,in the end the fault was the two o rings where the sump meets the block at the oil pump end it had moved from it seat and letting the oil pressure from the pump just return to the sump, slso on the dip stick there was a lot froth on it.

Just like this.
http://i1168.photobucket.com/albums/r499/harveysr/imagejpg1_zpse7a06c53.jpg (http://s1168.photobucket.com/user/harveysr/media/imagejpg1_zpse7a06c53.jpg.html)

I did test the oil pressure from a cold start and it was around 70-80 psi I think.

http://i1168.photobucket.com/albums/r499/harveysr/imagejpg1_zps92bdd536.jpg (http://s1168.photobucket.com/user/harveysr/media/imagejpg1_zps92bdd536.jpg.html)
Changed the "O" rings never had the fault return.

Just a bit more info if you change the oil pick up pipe for a new one you will get will be plastic.

[sumdarkplace]

This sounds likely, and whipping the sump off seems like a good plan! I'll have a chat with him tomorrow.

Thanks all :)