Hello everyone. Bought an 85 Firebird two days ago and it has been a blast. I love the car. It has 77K original miles on it and was owned by an older lady. My problem is that on my way home last night I looked down at my gauges to see that my oil pressure gauge was at 0. I pulled over right away and was about to shut the car off when I realized it wasn't idling rough or over heating. I let it sit for a minute thinking it would start pinging or the revs would start to drop from a lack of lubrication. But nothing happened! I shut the car off and it started back up no problem. I gave it some gas to rev it up and it did so smoothly but the gauge moved slightly. Could this be a bad pressure sending unit or just a bad gauge? My temperature gauge doesn't work, and this is what lead me to think that my pressure gauge could be bad as well. Let me know what you all think!

 

most likely the sending unit or sensor . they are not the most reliable . easy & cheap to change , located just above oil filter . be careful with the plastic elect. connector , they get brittle with heat & age . for the temp. gauge make sure wire to sensor has not fallen/came off . located between first 2 sparkplugs on drivers side . welcome & good luck .

 

Is that where you would connect a mechanical gauge if you wanted to check the oil pressure with a gauge?

I did replace that sensor before. The only problem is it is hard to get off. Because the socket tool for it won't fit cause there isn't room. I had to take it to a shop to get mine replaced because it would read zero. With the new gauge, the pressure is up, but it likes to drop way down.

Do you know if any of the part stores rent that gauge?

 

I went out and started it this morning and it read good oil pressure, then after it warmed up the ail pressure dropped. I'm running 10w-30 oil. So it may be something far worse than a sending unit -_-

 

still could be sending unit.....I would replace it...common for them to go bad. you should be able to hook a mechanical one in the same spot if the fitting is the same size. If you had 0 pressure, you should have some engine noise along with it. Should run at somewhere around 30psi or higher at idle in traffic when hot.