K-Series 1600 oil pressure.

[Chrisp5782]

I've recently picked up a 2004 1.6 K-Series car and, whilst checking it over, noticed to oil pressure gauge was reading low.
The garage fitted an external capillary type gauge to test pressure.

The readings gained were good (a little over 2 Bar on warm tickover and 4 Bar under load) I'm led to believe the original sender unit is less than reliable and prone to failure, is this correct?

How much of a drama is it to fit a mechanical oil pressure sender and are there any other options?

Cheers in advance.

[Grubbster]

The standard fit senders are notoriously unreliable but can be improved if sealed with a bit of silicone when new. I've fitted a mechanical gauge and pipe which is much better and more reliable. All the parts came from Think Automotive (some years ago now) and I went for a braided pipe with a clear plastic covering (the standard pipe is a thin plastic thing that I didn't think looked very robust). Its a fairly easy mod to do once you have the bits. If you speak to Think and tell them you want the bits to fit in a K series Caterham they should know exactly what you need - a pipe, a gauge and a thread adapter. optionally a T piece and an oil pressure switch which you can fit and use to trigger a warning light if you want to. http://www.thinkauto.com/

[BertBert]

I had success with the caterham remote sender kit. Didn't need to change the sender after that. It was a service item before that!

[dptdpt]

I also bought the remote sender kit from Think (in Mortlake?) and moved it up behind the radiator out of harms way. I also fitted a 2.5 bar pressure switch and a big red light on the dashboard. Didn't need to look at the gauge after that.
Had three or four senders before and they all gave different readings. As Grubster says, just tell Think Automotive what you want to do and they will send you all the bits.