Oil pressure test kit recommendation
Discussion
Going to invest in an oil pressure test kit for the Mini to assess engine condition. Probably use it 2-3 times and then it will sit on the shelf for years. Kit prices range from £20 to £200 with stuff from Sealey and Draper about in the middle. All come with a range of adapters so no big deal in connecting it up, I don't want a gauge to sit on the dash or all the faffing that involves, just something I can use in the garage.
Most of the cheaper ones are Sealey copies, probably made in China. It's not unlikely that the Sealey ones are made in China too and all you are paying for is the brand. Obviously the important part is the reliability and acuracy of the presure gauge and ther's no way of knowing how good that is unless you believe in the quality of the brand or get it independently calibrated (£££).
Recommendations?
Most of the cheaper ones are Sealey copies, probably made in China. It's not unlikely that the Sealey ones are made in China too and all you are paying for is the brand. Obviously the important part is the reliability and acuracy of the presure gauge and ther's no way of knowing how good that is unless you believe in the quality of the brand or get it independently calibrated (£££).
Recommendations?
TBH if it were me asking that question in your circumstances I would go cheap.
I get what you say about reliability/quality/accuracy but for me I would be justifying it as follows.
A hose is a hose & a cheap one can be replaced with a section of fuel hose or similar IF it fails.
The fittings are metal & even the cheapest ones will be fine if handled with mechanical sympathy.
The o-rings are free to replace as I have a Viton O-ring kit.
The gauge will be no less accurate than another gauge and can VERY easily be checked against a reference such as a tyre inflator gauge. A couple of PSI out will not be significant.
Save the £180 and use for beer.
I get what you say about reliability/quality/accuracy but for me I would be justifying it as follows.
A hose is a hose & a cheap one can be replaced with a section of fuel hose or similar IF it fails.
The fittings are metal & even the cheapest ones will be fine if handled with mechanical sympathy.
The o-rings are free to replace as I have a Viton O-ring kit.
The gauge will be no less accurate than another gauge and can VERY easily be checked against a reference such as a tyre inflator gauge. A couple of PSI out will not be significant.
Save the £180 and use for beer.
JimM169 said:
Is oil pressure something you can read via the OBD2 port? If so I'd just get a VCI and something like Car Scanner app on my phone
Be careful with this approach - from memory, BMW engines have an oil pressure switch, not a sensor, but some diagnostic tools will read either (say) 0 or 1 bar of pressure if the sensor is on/off. Which is fine to figure out if the engine is alive or dead, but no use for anything else.I have the BMW ISTA software and along with a bit of research on the mini forums it appears our Gen2 1.6 Mini does only have the oil pressure switch as per Jakg. Believe some of the performance versions may be different. My 530i BMW for example does provide oil temperature and pressure data.
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