Oil pressure guage conversion

WaltA

Founding Member
Aug 30, 2001
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I have been reading over in the Explorer forums for some time now, about how some Explorer owners have been able to successfully upgrade their oil pressure "gauge" into an actual gauge.

Explorers, like Mustangs, have a oil pressure "gauge" on their dash that will indicate only two possible values; "zero" or "normal". That is because Ford is using only a oil pressure _switch_ instead of a true oil pressure sensor. The oil pressure switch is either on or off. To keep the needle on the pressure "gauge" on the dash from being at either one extreme or the other, there is a resistor which is used to roughly place the needle somewhere in the normal range.

The upgrade or fix the Explorer people do, is to replace the oil pressure switch with a oil pressure sensor, Ford P/N E4ZZ-9278-A, and short out the resistor.

Has anyone tried this on a late model Mustang???

PS: This works on Thunderbird Super Coupes too, see
http://www.sccoa.com/articles/oilgauge.php
 
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mity2 said:
Its bit confusing... So i guess its not just replace sender unit afterall?

The problem, if that is the right word, is that resistor. That resistor needs to be shorted out, for this mod to work.

Apparently, they integrated the resistor into the gauge itself about 1/2 thru the '96 model year. That made it difficult, if not impossible, to short out.

However, I know Ford redesigned the instrument cluster yet again for '99 when they switched to the electronic odometer. What I don't know, is if and how the oil gauge changed at that time.
 
Seems pretty cool to have the OEM guage actually have a sweep. But for all that work I would rather get an autometer pressure guage that displays actual pressure values. Even though the OEM would sweep, you still dont know what your oil pressure is. Kind of pointless.