Oil pressure drop at 80mph
Discussion
Does it always do it?
Mine did it once and it scared the poop out of me
Was cruising along, put my foot down to pass something and the pressure fell, pretty quickly backed off ready to kill the engine when the pressure came back! A bit of experimenting showed it happenend consistently, I came off at a slip road and all was back to normal. Most odd.
This was about 2 years ago so pretty confident it was a one-off.
Mine did it once and it scared the poop out of me
Was cruising along, put my foot down to pass something and the pressure fell, pretty quickly backed off ready to kill the engine when the pressure came back! A bit of experimenting showed it happenend consistently, I came off at a slip road and all was back to normal. Most odd.
This was about 2 years ago so pretty confident it was a one-off.
This is obviously a very effective speed limiting device!
I would attach a multimeter directly to the sender and view the reading at various speeds with loom disconnected. Then see if a drop is noticed. At least this will indicate if an electrical gremlin...
Jon
I would attach a multimeter directly to the sender and view the reading at various speeds with loom disconnected. Then see if a drop is noticed. At least this will indicate if an electrical gremlin...
Jon
Edited by Chimjunkie on Tuesday 13th February 21:42
Its possibly one of these two things:
1. The oil pickup pipe has worked loose on its bolts and is not allowing oil up to the pump, or
2. (And this happened to me) A piece of the silicon sealant used as a sump gasket found its way into the strainer on the pickup pipe. The oil pressure was normal until i accelerated and this would subsequently suck the silicon up against the strainer and starve the pump.
FYI, removing the sump takes less than an hour.
HTH
Kim
1. The oil pickup pipe has worked loose on its bolts and is not allowing oil up to the pump, or
2. (And this happened to me) A piece of the silicon sealant used as a sump gasket found its way into the strainer on the pickup pipe. The oil pressure was normal until i accelerated and this would subsequently suck the silicon up against the strainer and starve the pump.
FYI, removing the sump takes less than an hour.
HTH
Kim
Mine has started to do this from time to time, when i was on the run to garstang on the sunday just gone mine was reading lower than normal at higher speeds yet the temp and levels were fine but the next day all was as normal again. Most strange.
Does anyone know what the correct pressure readings should be when the car is at running temp?
Does anyone know what the correct pressure readings should be when the car is at running temp?
Bump,
I have a similar problem.Pressure usully fine on start up and when I start driving. It is only after engine warm and I start to press on that pressure will rapidly drop to below the 0 level on acceleration, sometimes even just lightly touching the accelerator can cause a drop. It can be intermittent. It is worrying when the pressure drops on accelerating as I would think that a loose connector would cause pressure always to read low or zero rather than just on acceleration. Again it tends to be at higher speeds normally.
Does anyone know what happens, or have you found an answer yet midas dude as I would be inetrested to know what you found.
Cheers, Mike
I have a similar problem.Pressure usully fine on start up and when I start driving. It is only after engine warm and I start to press on that pressure will rapidly drop to below the 0 level on acceleration, sometimes even just lightly touching the accelerator can cause a drop. It can be intermittent. It is worrying when the pressure drops on accelerating as I would think that a loose connector would cause pressure always to read low or zero rather than just on acceleration. Again it tends to be at higher speeds normally.
Does anyone know what happens, or have you found an answer yet midas dude as I would be inetrested to know what you found.
Cheers, Mike
You should have a working oil pressure light (from pressure switch nitthe sender) which will flash if pressure drops below 10-5 psi (IIRC I'm no manual nerd). If your gauge reads below this and the light stays off, simply your gauge/sender is at fault somewhere. Sphincter moments are only neccessary when the red light comes on!.
Dave
Dave
spend said:
You should have a working oil pressure light (from pressure switch nitthe sender) which will flash if pressure drops below 10-5 psi (IIRC I'm no manual nerd). If your gauge reads below this and the light stays off, simply your gauge/sender is at fault somewhere. Sphincter moments are only neccessary when the red light comes on!.
Dave
Dave
This is my take too. I see my pressure drop to zero (no red oil light) at any time, just seems to drop away gently, stick around zero for a few seconds then gently come back up - like the pointer's feeling a bit weary for a while. Funnily this has only happened since I've been driving in cold weather with the heater on. Oil levels are good (just had a 48k service at Fernies). Have to wait and see if it goes away in the warmer weather.
TVR Thunder said:
I had this problem last year, traced it to the oil pressure switch connector, clean it completely and re-attach. ensure the contact is sound. no problem since.
Ian.
Ian.
I'm a little confused, did you mean the oil pressure sender (the thing that activates the gauge, oil pressure switch is what it says ~ it turns the light on).
Dave
spend said:
You should have a working oil pressure light (from pressure switch nitthe sender) which will flash if pressure drops below 10-5 psi (IIRC I'm no manual nerd). If your gauge reads below this and the light stays off, simply your gauge/sender is at fault somewhere. Sphincter moments are only neccessary when the red light comes on!.
Dave
Dave
However, do make sure you know which is the oil pressure warning light, and that it does actually work, before you use it as evidence of oil pressure. It's easy o confuse it with the no-charge warning light. The oil pressure warning light and no charge warning lights should both come on with the ignition. The way to tell them apart is that the no-charge warning light should normally come on as the engine spins down if you rev it and switch off. However, if you have got a car that uses an LED instead of a bulb for the no-charge warning light, it may not do this. In that case you'll have to find some other way to confirm which is which.
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