Fluctuating Oil Pressure - should I worry?

[zippee]

Just collected my car after having a new clutch fitted and noticed some strange behaviour on the oil pressure guage, under normal driving pressure is fine and also at idle, but when I put the throttle down it'll dip and jerk, sometimes right down to zero before coming back up again. It's also not a smooth arc any more, the needle jerking occasionally to get to different levels.
Beforehand the guage was absolutely fine and the oil level is spot on.
Any ideas as to what could cause this? And should I worry that the prressure keeps dropping to zero - first noticed when I changed down and went round a roundabout and re-enacted it on the drive. As stated its fine under load but is worrying me big time. I swear my car is jinxed.....

[chassis 33]

Check that the electrical connectors on the sender are home tightly, if they're flapping about they it will give silly readings, double check them if the engine came out, as opposed to dropping the gearbox to do the clutch..

Rgards
Iain

[Seasider]

New sender mate

Dont worry

Or if ya lucky just check the spade connector like chassis said

But i've needed 2 new senders so far

Edited by Seasider on Friday 11th August 19:48

[zippee]

Cheers guys, I'll take a look at the connections tomorrow else replace it if that doesn't work.
Had so much bad luck since buying last year I'm not sure how much more I can take. Just spent over £700 on a new clutch and slave cylinder and am also possible facing a 2.5-3k bill for damage caused during repatriation from Switzerland where the clutch had let go.

[Seasider]

Call me tomorrow if you need a word

[pullingpower]

This is very common and is usually the connector loose rather than a faulty sender although they are fragile and if the clutch has been changed it could have taken a knock. Just try pushing the spade connector tight and maybe securing with tape. I did this when I had the same symptoms and it was sorted.
Be reassured that such acute pressure fluctuations and not due to anything mechanical. An oil pressure of 0 would be catastrophic for the engine and you would know about it. Also I belive the oil prssure warning light should come on at anything below 8psi IIRC(?). The needle flicking up and down is usually the connector although I believe a fault in earthing can sometimes cause similar readings.

[jason1788]

Zip, what was the repatriation damage??? Keep the faith dude.

[Seasider]

I found that on mine that the sender wire back to the loom was very short, this sometimes almost pulled the spade connector off so you might want to lengthen it a little. I used 6" of wire and another male/female spade so the spade onto the oil sender doesn't need to be disturbed as much if engine work is done.

As said it is likely to be the connection but i had a small sump leak at the front (now re-sealed) the oil was finding the lowest point to drip i.e. sender. It looked like oil was creaping up into the sender via spade seal area. I believe it has some sort of diaphram inside and think oil had damaged something in the sender, also the spade was at an angle (i presume pulled by the tight wire)...

[zippee]

jason1788 said:

Zip, what was the repatriation damage??? Keep the faith dude.

I'll try, but the way my bank balance has deterioated and my credit card balance has shot up its damned hard to find any faith to keep. Keep getting tempted by an Elise, especially when it comes to service costs.

Pictures of my car are on this thread - http://pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.
The damage may not look too severe but as you all know with fibreglass it's what you can't see thats the problem, it'll need re-laminating and a front end re-spray plus all the other work around it. I've had 2 quotes so far each around the 2.5k mark. Just hoping that the AA admit liability, their saying it could have happened at the garage it was left at in Switzerland and so won't be down to them.

[jasandjules]

zippee said:

I'll try, but the way my bank balance has deterioated and my credit card balance has shot up its damned hard to find any faith to keep. Keep getting tempted by an Elise, especially when it comes to service costs.

My Elise cost £1100 for a service...................