A little less than a week ago my oil pressure gage stopped working altogether. Traced it down and the wire came disconnected somehow in the engine bay, so it was an electronic problem (whew). Well, fixed that and now my oil pressure is very low. When the car is cold it will sit at 30, car heats up, and at idle it is just above the red, around the 15 mark. Obviously this isn't good.

Now my oil pressure gage could just be wrong, I don't know. I changed my oil filter and oil about 2 weeks ago. This problem started almost a week ago. Is there anyway to check my oil pressure without the gage? What could be wrong?

 

A good rule of thumb is 10psi for every 1k rpms, so 15 isn't bad at idle.

 

Yeah, I guess it would be alright. But the thing is, it used to be at 30 at idle, when the car was under normal opperating temps of course.

 

i think your fine, when the temp gets up to temp the oil pressure will drop.. what does it read when you get on it some? like 3 to 4 rpm.. i know that when i cruising around 80 the pressure is fairly high on the guage.. and idle at normal temp is low but when first start up (cold) its high, around 30..

just make sure that you have the proper amount of oil in there, and that when the rpm's go up the oil pressure increases and the guage should be responsive.. so i guess that would mine the oil pump is working correctly..

 

Just to be safe it is always a good idea to replace an old sender and the wiring if you feel it is suspect.

I used to have a friend with a grand prix that sat at 80psi at idle and floated down to 40 while cruising. I told him I'd change the sender for him, but he didn't seem to care. It should act as MdFormula350 says.

 

I 2nd, or is that 3rd, changing the oil pressure sending unit. Had the same problem, replaced the sender, problem solved.

 

it'd be a good idea to screw a gauge in the block and by pass the sender, wires, and factory gauge just to see what you really have.

 

Thanks guys. It was the sender unit. Replaced and it runs like a champ again...well, the best it can with a leaky intake manifold and a slipping trans