Oil Pressure

[j8 tro]

Last night on the way home from work my oil pressure gauge suddenly read 90+! After panicking and pulling over to see if it was serious I started back up and pootled down the road to Horizon (thank god they are a stones throw away)
He had a quick look and told me straight away it was not putting in high pressure and that the gauge was getting/giving a faulty reading. He pointed out the sender in the block (near the oil filter) and I had a quick look last night to see if any wires were loose. Nothing to report.
Can anyone point me in the right direction of things to try? Testing the gauge? Testing the sender? Cost of a new oil pressure sender? Easy to fit or pain in the A**.
Thanks
Jay

[chimburt]

don't think it's a big deal. try renewing the crimps on the sender - they might look alright but can cause all many of wonky readings.

[tahiti450]

Just spent a weekend stripping and re-calibrating my oil pressure sender after some alarming (false)readings Now works a treat. When I get a min I'll summarise my findings. In short these senders are quite prone to malfunction and are notoriously inaccurate.

[V8 Archie]

j8 tro said:

Cost of a new oil pressure sender? Easy to fit or pain in the A**.

I was charged about £50 for the sender and an hour to fit (although that time included some diagnostics before hand).

The new one's not really any better.

I'm glad someone else thinks they're a dodgy part, though.

[david beer]

I have just replaced mine, £65 i think and ten minutes to fit. So nice to see 55 from cold and no lower than 30 at tick over when hot. A 10k resistor to ground calibrated a "zero" reading before starting up, rather than minus 10 ! If you had a dodgy connector, the guage would under read, shorting the cable to ground/chassis/neg makes the guage rise.

[petros]

Hope it's nothing serious. Peter

[PeterC]

You wait until the oil pressure suddenly drop to zero and then you will panic!

The oil pressure sender seem prone to early failure, mine went when the car was just over three years old. The solution is simple, bite the bullet and replace the sender.

[rpulley]

Yep my oil pressure gauge started getting erratic one minute loads of pressure the next none. changed the sender now perfect. I think the sender was £50-£60. There are different types though depending on your engine so get the right one.