no oil pressure.that was scary!

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got in my jeep this morning.got a few blocks from home and the "check gauges" light came on and the oil pressure guage went to zero. pulled over and listened.sounded fine.pulled the oil fill cap off and saw that it was oiling. tapped on the oil pressure sender and the gauge went past 80psi. unplugged the sender and plugged it back on and no change. with the key on,engine off it showed 60 psi! a new sender ($47)and all is normal again.
 
Bout 15 years ago I was driving a 73' Holden Kingswood through central Western Australia, Nearest town several hours away, when the oil light came on.

I pull over check the level, listen for noises, still purring like a kitten, but I was still stressing it.

After about 15 minutes another car drove by and stopped.

"Arrgh, She'll be right mate, just keep going!"

I did.

Sold the car on the opposite side of the Continent, 9 months later. It require one pair of tires, 1 U-joint in those thousands of kilometers driving.

The oil light went off somewhere about halfway across the Nullarbor plain.

I miss that car, and those days.
 
When they started my reman engine for the first time they saw oil in the valve train area and initially thought things were OK. But the oil pressure gauge showed zero. Changed the sensor, still zero.

As it turns out the oil path has a "Y" and some goes to the valve train and some to the bearings. The path to the bearings had not been cleaned properly during the rebuild and was clogged. The engine was trashed. Had to be pulled and sent back.

The replacement has now gone 50K miles with no issues.
 
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Back in the "Day", it was common practice for hot rodder DIY types to mix up their own concoction of assembly lube. Buddy of mine was putting his drag strip only 327 back together, and was using his personal mix of Pennzoil racing 20/40 and Lubriplate.......A little heavy on the grease, to my way of thinking. And very heavy handed with the application......

Anyway, we put the engine in the car, it fired right up. Oil pressure by way of driving the oil pump before turning the motor was good. After engine fire, the oil pressure went to zero, and just bounced a little. Shutdown, try to figure out what was wrong, finally pull pan. The oil pump pickup was plugged with white grease. I did not believe that was possible.
 
What makes oil pressure sending units go bad? Seems like the most common gauge to go bad on every make of car.
 
Originally Posted By: aquariuscsm
What makes oil pressure sending units go bad? Seems like the most common gauge to go bad on every make of car.
they are just a switch or a resister and they just wear out.
 
Originally Posted By: aquariuscsm
What makes oil pressure sending units go bad? Seems like the most common gauge to go bad on every make of car.


Just had to replace a bad sender. Oil was infiltrating from the inside, from the center of the sender. When enough oil built up in the connector, it would break the electical connection, causing an intermittent oil pressure light on my Caravan.
 
My wife and I were driving our daughter to college last fall in two separate cars. We get there and my daughter asked me if it was okay that she drove the last 30 minutes without any oil pressure. Grrrrrr....
This was on an engine that I had completely rebuilt from the ground up and I knew she couldn't have driven it for 30 minutes without oil pressure, but I was a little angry that she drove it with 0 PSI on the gauge because she knows better.
Luckily, it was just the oil sender that went bad.
 
Crazy! This literally just happened to me yesterday in my '97 Grand Cherokee. At a light and noticed my gauge was at zero. Turned off the radio to listen, everything sounded normal, no differences than normal so I pulled into a parking lot. Checked oil level and it was fine. Turned off, turned on and the oil went back to normal (40 psi) and then fluctuated a little and went back to zero. Drove home on the freeway for over 30 miles just fine and when I pulled the electrical connector on the oil pressure sender, it was oily so I'm guessing it's that.

Ordered a Mopar one and should have it this weekend. Just have to try and ignore the gauge at zero, which still makes me uneasy even knowing it's just the sender unit.
 
The oil pressure sending unit is a common problem on Jeeps. We installed a mechanical oil pressure gauge in my buddy's Jeep for this very reason.
 
Originally Posted By: jeepman3071
The oil pressure sending unit is a common problem on Jeeps.



Yep and avoid cheap replacements. A bit expensive, but Chris was right to go with OEM.
 
Originally Posted By: Zaedock
Originally Posted By: jeepman3071
The oil pressure sending unit is a common problem on Jeeps.



Yep and avoid cheap replacements. A bit expensive, but Chris was right to go with OEM.
ha.that was a made in Mexico one from Napa.all the auto parts stores were around $50
 
Chris, was yours leaking?

On my drive home yesterday, noticed the engine was slightly smoking. Opened up the hood and the sending unit was now leaking badly and it was leaking onto part of the engine and smoking.

Glad I had the day off today and the new OEM comes in tomorrow.
 
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