After a while of driving my car, in traffic, or at stoplights, my Oil Pressure goes down into the red. Of course when its that low and i use my brakes and steering at once, it drops lower, almost to 0.

Im not sure what is happening or why, the car is fairly new to me.

Could this be signs of the previous owner beating on the car?

 

My gauge bounce all over , thats only because the sensor bad. You might want to put a mechanical gauge on it to test the oil pressure if its good then the sensor is just bad. Its like this if your driving with no oil pressure won't take very long before the engine goes kapoot. The sensor located right above your oil filter.

Dan

 

You really need to take care of this right away, as you'll eventually ruin you're cam if you don't.

When you're waiting for a traffic light, and the pressure goes down into the red.... when you give it gas, does it go up slightly, then slowly down again?

If so, you're oil pump is either shot, or the screen just below it is clogged with clumpy/bad oil, which holds back pressure. If you keep driving this way, you're cam will eventually start to 'whistle' due to a spun bearing.

You might need to drop the pan, as sometimes the oil is so clumped up.... that you're ordinary oil change just won't do the trick. Might as well get yourself a new oil pump while you're at it (their cheap enough). Make sure you get a high pressure pump, and not a high volume one....

 

It does exactly what you say and i have no money, id have to take it to a mechanic.

 

summit racing
Part SLP-224-4146A

standard volume/high pressure ..........right?

Is that a good enough pump? What would you recommend?



Ugh.. Is this a hard thing to do? Any write-ups on it?

 

Oil pumps don't go bad that way. They either work, or they don't. So replacing it won't fix anything.

The gauge system however does fail like that. ALOT. Put a new gauge sending unit in it first. $15, 10 minutes; instead of all the work of changing out the oil pump.

 

The mechanic is going to charge you mostly for the labor, as he's going to have to lift the engine up to get the pan out. You're best bet would be to do the work yourself....

As for a faulty gauge, that's very possible... but when you're idling at a stop light, when the oil pressure drops like that, you can literally hear the valvetrain, right? Sounds a little on the dry side (metal on metal) when the gauge goes that low, right? This is why you instinctively rev her when this happens, so pressure builds back up.

Anyways, a new oil pump won't hurt a thirteen year old car. I think it would be wise to replace you're stocker with a high pressure piece. Of course, you have the final say though....

Good luck