Low oil pressure

MustangvertGT

Founding Member
Jul 17, 2002
122
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Montebello, Cali
The last couple of days, my Oil pressure has been right below the R on Normal. It use to be straight on top, or at the end of the M. However, the last couple of days it has been low. It hasnt dropped to nothing, but it kinda startles me that its doing this now. Some times it will be straight on top as it should, but most of thise week it has been low. What could be wrong? Im hoping its just the cheezy stock gauge. Im getting some autometer gauges installed this weekend (temp and oil press). No smoke out the rear, but it does leak a small drop here and there. The oil level is still full however (according to the dip stick marks at least, i check every other night, lol)
 
My car would lose all oil pressure at idle, nothing at all, off the gauge. It would slowely rise and hit maybe the A unless full throttle. I assumed the sending unit was bad or the gauge, but with the new motor when I have run it, for maybe 30 mins at most, the guse works at idle, so who knows?

Your case sounds like a sending unit or gauge.
 
im not conversant enough with the SN95's to know if their gauges suck like the fox chassis stangs gauges do (but i hope to be at some point. cant find a decent 94 or 95 around here).
if you dont hear anything (ticking, clacking, etc), and the gauge still reads sorta ok, i would not sweat it too much, knowing you're gonna get gauges later this week...you are not gonna do the install (you said 'installed')...do it yourself and save some cash. very easy to do. post or search in here (same principles for the mounting and same component locations on the motor). people will help you out with any problems you have.

in any case, good luck.
 
HISSIN50 said:
im not conversant enough with the SN95's to know if their gauges suck like the fox chassis stangs gauges do (but i hope to be at some point. cant find a decent 94 or 95 around here).
if you dont hear anything (ticking, clacking, etc), and the gauge still reads sorta ok, i would not sweat it too much, knowing you're gonna get gauges later this week...you are not gonna do the install (you said 'installed')...do it yourself and save some cash. very easy to do. post or search in here (same principles for the mounting and same component locations on the motor). people will help you out with any problems you have.

in any case, good luck.

yea, what I meant by "installed" was that im going to a friends house and doing them. Its more fun working on the car with someone around, lol. Just to chit chat to pass the time away(even tho itll take a few minutes)

The only "ticking" I have is from an exhaust leake on my pass. side header. Its not small where u mistaken it for lifter noise, its a prety good leak so I can tell its an exhaust leak.

My next question! How accurate is the DIP STICK? I do have an oil leak, but the dipstick reads "full". Itll drip a few drops over night. About one or two, but one or two drops leavs a mess after a few months, lol. Perhaps its low on oil? Ill doing an oil change just in case to give it a full fill(its a little early, but not too early to perform an oil change). Ill just drive my moms Expidition tomarrow since shes got the day off.

Basic question (sorry for so many, lol). I dont drive my car that much. Oil changes are recomended every 3k miles. BUT Ive only put 6k miles in a year. So do I just change the oil every 3 months or so? This is what ive been doing. Thanks guys!
 
my gauge seems to be reading a tad lower lately, especially on warmer days when the motor has been running for a while. I think it's just because the oil is thinning out a bit. My motor has all new gaskets, isn't burning oil, and is full, so I'm pretty sure it's just the highter temps.
 
MustangvertGT said:
yea, what I meant by "installed" was that im going to a friends house and doing them. Its more fun working on the car with someone around, lol. Just to chit chat to pass the time away(even tho itll take a few minutes)

The only "ticking" I have is from an exhaust leake on my pass. side header. Its not small where u mistaken it for lifter noise, its a prety good leak so I can tell its an exhaust leak.

My next question! How accurate is the DIP STICK? I do have an oil leak, but the dipstick reads "full". Itll drip a few drops over night. About one or two, but one or two drops leavs a mess after a few months, lol. Perhaps its low on oil? Ill doing an oil change just in case to give it a full fill(its a little early, but not too early to perform an oil change). Ill just drive my moms Expidition tomarrow since shes got the day off.

Basic question (sorry for so many, lol). I dont drive my car that much. Oil changes are recomended every 3k miles. BUT Ive only put 6k miles in a year. So do I just change the oil every 3 months or so? This is what ive been doing. Thanks guys!
you have to lose a lot of drips to see it on the dipstick.

your OCI: i am kinda in the same boat (i drove it 1.5K miles LAST year). i changed it every 4 months (sometimes with only 200 miles on it). it still gets moisture and contaminates in it, though. im sure this is way too anal, but i do it (it was hard to leave it in for 4 months. LOL). i am gonna go to Mobil 1 and change it every 6 months (will be about the same cost wise as two dino oil changes, but with better protection, esp with infrequent start ups).

you would need to do oil analysis to know for sure, but i bet you could go 6 months on dino oil and be fine.

just my opinion....good luck.