My cure for the far too common low oil pressure gauge reading problem

[Fastest95PGT]

I've tried pulling on the thing where the sensor wire comes in, I've tried unscrewing the aluminum (or some other soft metal) case...I've tried a bunch of things. How do I get this off in order to sand it?

When mine was stock I could put a socket over it and ratchet it off. (it's threaded)

[JOSEPH PIERCE]

When mine was stock I could put a socket over it and ratchet it off. (it's threaded)

how there is a wire on the top?

[Fastest95PGT]

The wire comes off.. it's just clipped on. If it doesn't want to come off, you probably have a ton of corosion anyways that you should clean off.

[CoolCar]

Thanks to probepimp!
Wifey has 238,000 miles on her 93 daily driver and we've been worried about the oil pressure. Gonna be some smoochy smoochy tonight! WooHoo!

[Smuffy]

Awesome! Great idea, I guess just knowing it was a common problem, I never thought to do anything about it. Kudos!

[midnight41503]

I dont know if this is any help from anyone but i did what probepimp recomended for everyone and it didnt work for me. However, i noticed that the oil pressure gauge drops way low past the red area when the motor is off and when the motor runs its around the L on normal. I checked it with my neightbor mechanic and its completely fine but it just appears as though it has low oil pressure and the gauge is twisted weird. Well thanx for the tip probepimp anyway.

[MasonWeitzel]

yeah i think thats my problem too, my autometer reads 25 at idle which is 1500 rpm due to colt cams, and at 3000+ RPM its 38-42. PLus my stock gauge goes all over the place.

[93BamaGT]

Yes, keep the connections clean! I had a problem with the wire breaking a few times, and the oil pressure guage not working. I finally took off the front end air induction parts, and soldered the wires together. Working fine now. Always showed low oil pressure, but either the the sending unit is too small or the guage too big! Anyway, if oil pressure wasn't at a safe level, I wouldn't have 219,000 miles on my 93 Probe GT! Whatever it's doing apparently is OK, at least in my car.

[SirMichael]

What if you are not getting an oil pressure reading at all??? I know its in there and I know that its getting through the engine. I took the oil fill cap off and it squirted out.

-Mike

[Fastest95PGT]

What if you are not getting an oil pressure reading at all??? I know its in there and I know that its getting through the engine. I took the oil fill cap off and it squirted out.

Make sure the wire hasn't come off the sender. If you confirm that, try taking the wire off and cleaning both it and the sender contact points.

If cleaning the connectors don't work, time to start tracing it back to your cluster.

[SirMichael]

It will move but once the car is started it flatlines. Ill try that and see what happens.

[Joepanther1234]

Glad to hear I'm not the only one with the oil pressure problem


I have a 93 PGT and my oil pressure is reading low. I've been adding oil to try and bring the pressure up but all that happens is it blows out and leaves a puddle under my car. Glad to hear that there might be a fix to my low pressure problem. Thanks again for posting this new find. I will sand the unit this weekend to see if that resolves the problem.[/FONT]

I tried searching to see if this has ever been posted before but the search function seems to be down.[FONT=Arial Black]

On both of my 93 PGTs, the oil pressure has always read low. I know it's a common occurance on these cars, but it annyoyed the hell out of me and I wanted to see if there was anything I could do. On my red PGT, the gauge read between the 'A' and the 'L' of 'NORMAL" on the gauge; not too bad but low enough for me to be unconfortable. On my black daily driver PGT, it was extremely low, being only a hair above the red line on the bottom.

I decided to pull off the oil pressure sending unit located to the left of the exhaust manifold (if looking into the engine bay). I took it off and noticed the electrical connector on it was a little corroded. All I did was simply take sandpaper and sanded it clean, installed it back on the car and plugged it back in. I did this on my red PGT first. Went and started the car and the oil pressure read perfecrtly in the middle of 'NORMAL' now. So far it seems to be staying there too. I did the same thing to my black PGT, and it also raised it, moving it from just above that red mark to the 'A' of the 'NORMAL'.

Like I said, I don't know if this was ever posted, but I thought I'd share my little find.

[Fastest95PGT]

I have a 93 PGT and my oil pressure is reading low. I've been adding oil to try and bring the pressure up but all that happens is it blows out and leaves a puddle under my car. Glad to hear that there might be a fix to my low pressure problem. Thanks again for posting this new find. I will sand the unit this weekend to see if that resolves the problem.

Unless you were nearly out of oil, adding more will in no way shape or form increase your oil pressure aside from making the viscosity slightly thicker than the used oil.

[arowosa]

when does this low oil pressure start to occur, like how many miles?

[Fastest95PGT]

when does this low oil pressure start to occur, like how many miles?

You can't really go by how many miles. I'd say it'd depend on how "cruddy" all the previous oil changes were allowed to get before being changed. This questions the type of filter, how many miles per change, size of filter, etc.

It's the crud (as to my understanding, correct me if I'm wrong) which will partially clog the OPSU.