so i have a 1989 firebird and when i start it, it will start right up and the oil pressure gauge will go up to 30ish as im driving i notice that it starts to slowly go down. after about 20 minutes of driving i had no oil pressure, then 6 or so minutes after that my ses light comes on, i havent driven the car since this happend. so does anybody have any idea how to fix this? i cant think of what the problem would be, be it oil pump, seals, sending unit, bearings, etc. but what i do know is how the guage reacted and that i did smell a little burning oil. any help is opreciated, thanks guys.

 

Most likely just the sending unit gone goofy.


Hook up a mechanical gauge and see what happens!

 

2 questions spring to mind.

1. Is the oil level ok? Sensors can go bad, but dipsticks tend not to.

2. What codes have been stored in your ECM since the SES light came on?

The answers to those questions will probably point you in the right direction.

 

ok i checked the oil level and its right in the middle of the little guage. and i checked the ecm for codes and all i got were 12 and 32.

 

Code 32 seems unrelated to your oil pressure problem. Not sure what it means on a V6 engine but on my 305TPI, it means EGR system failure.

Anyway, I had exactly the same problem you're seeing. Car starts up with 30psi of oil pressure. Then it slowly drops until all of a sudden it's showing 0 at idle after about 1/2 hour of driving. Turns out it was the oil pressure sender. Cost me $27.

Jack up the front of the car safely and pull the plug off the oil pressure sender (above the oil filter). If the plug has oil in it, the sender is leaking and has gone bad. (like mine)

If you don't have a mechanical pressure gauge to test the pressure with, just replace this sender, there's a big chance it's faulty.

Lou

 

oh i guess i forgot to say i have a 305tbi engine. ill check the sender unit and the egr but what is code 12?

 

12 is the "all-ok" code that is ALWAYS flashed.
It's used to synchronize your code reading (pulse counting).
Please ignore it. It's not a fault code.

Lou