stock cluster showing no oil pressure

[Night Shifter]

i was sitting in traffic today and had been driving the car for about 2 hours when i looked down and scanned my guages and noticed i had no oil pressure...the needle was just below the red mark on the low side of the guage

the car was not knocking/ticking/pinging/over heating or anything..it was idleing fine and driving fine....so i pulled over shut the car off and proceeded to check my oil...oil level was normal and i went through the car top to bottom and no signs of any oil leaks anywhere either...

at that point i figure maybe my guage went haywire so i turn the key to acc to se if it would reset..it raised up from the bottom where all the guages fall to when they're off but wont raise past the beginning of the low oil press red mark...so crap

gave it a couple tries and no dice...so i let the car sit a little bit and cool off...try again, same thing....so i say f it and start the car (everything under the hood is under warranty) no starting issues and again, no other driveablity/idle issues so i get it home and let it sit...wait about 3 hours and start it and no issues but the gauge still wont raise past the lower red mark...

any ideas here? can you all give me everything i need to check mechanically and electrically? fuses, pumps, wires ect.....im hoping my guage is just crapping out but i really really really think its a bad idea to drive this car....

im really thinking its just the guage but if it was bad wouldnt it not move at all? any tips/info will help...thanks guys!

 

[nyuk98gt]

Night Shifter:

The "gauge" is just a pressure switch. Check the oil level and, hopefully, it is OK. The pressure switch can be replaced easily. I don't recall but I think that the Haynes manual has a test for the switch (resistance? voltage?).

If you have a reasonable level on the dipstick then it is probably the switch. It is possible that the oil pump failed but, if that was the case, you would hear deep knocking at all RPM's.

HTH,

Chris

 

[Night Shifter]

thanks! I will look that up in the morning then...the pump only has 7,227 babied miles on it along with the longblock as well so i could only assume it's just the guage...i figured if it was indeed the oil pump i would hear a crap ton of niose and somewhere along the 60 mile drive home i would have been stranded...

ill be on the search for this switch as well as the other info i get in the morning...

oh and as for the oil level, it was showin at max level on the dipstick..i checked, checked and double checked in the parking lot i stoped at and triple checked it when i got to the house..ill be double checking in the am before i start my car

 

[wmburns]

Try grounding the wire at the oil pressure sender. If the gauge reads OK then, the oil pressure sender is bad.

 

[nyuk98gt]

Try grounding the wire at the oil pressure sender. If the gauge reads OK then, the oil pressure sender is bad.

Mr. Burns to the rescue again! Thanks for posting that tidy lil test.

Chris

 

[Night Shifter]

can you guys give me an idea of where the oil pressure sender is located cause i have no idea.... im at work now and didnt get to get into looking last night but i need to look for excessive valve train tick right now right? i have a small exhaust leak that ticks so i couldnt tell when driving the car yesterday if there was any other ticks...oh and i have no CEL so wouldnt that go on if the pump went bad?

is the pump crank driven in the 4.6?

 

[trombonedemon]

The sender is at an awkward location on the other side of the oil filter by some grounding wires. Sensor is in a tight so you might wanna use a crescent. I had to take mine off for the oil gauge install. Useless yes but I wanted all of th gauges working.

 

[Night Shifter]

cool thanks...gonna put it on the lift in a bit and see if i can find it...i would imagine its just the sensor other wise my thread title wouldbe something like "loud chatter no oil pressure"

 

[Night Shifter]

Try grounding the wire at the oil pressure sender. If the gauge reads OK then, the oil pressure sender is bad.

sorry for my ignorance but are you telling me to take the ground wire off the sensor and reground it to the sensor?

 

[Night Shifter]

PROBLEM FIXED!!!!

looks like when i changed my clutch cable out i knocked the connector loose...pushed it back in and the gauge went back to normal!

 

[nyuk98gt]

LOL!

Good work and thanks for posting an update with the root cause identified. At least it was an easy fix.

Chris

 

[Night Shifter]

no problem

thank god it was something easy...been crapping myself all day long about it...thanks for the info!