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Oil gauge went crazy on me!


90TGP

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Ok, I was drving around today, was hot, in the 80s somewhere. I was going down this hill when I started to slow down. The needle on the oil gauge just shot up past 80psi. It then went down to 40psi and went back up. It did this till it calmed down when I was at the bottom at a stop sign.

 

When I turned to head home and accelerated, it jumped a little too.

 

It did this back and forth as I accelerated lightly and hit the brakes on the way home.

 

Right now it's in the garage cooling down. Maybe it was just really hot?

 

I know it couldn't be the turbo oil return line, I just had that replaced when I had the cross-x changed. :?

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Well, since oil is thinner at hot tempreture it shouldn't spike high up like that.

I'm willing to bet it's the Oil Pressure Sending (OPS) unit since I had my DOHC Cutlass gauge do that as well.

I was running 5W-30 and at WOT it was spiked at 80psi.

Conduct some more test / check, but williug to bet you'll replace that sensor and it'll read normal once again.

 

- Erik

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Where would this sensor be located at? Can it be easily changed in the driveway with basic tools, or would it be better to have a mechanic do it?

 

No, if you've got experience with some basic hand wrenches, you're set.

Lift the front of the car and you'll find it's right next to the oil filter.

It's a 2" or 3" inch black cylinder with a metal fitting screwed in the oil filter baseplate.

It'll have a wire connector pluged into it (2 or 3 wires) and it basically un-screws out.

When re-installing, use some plummers tape so that it doesn't leak!

Best of luck!

 

- Erik

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Test the sending unit first before you spend money on a sending unit. All you need to do is have the ignition on with or without the car running and take the wire clip off the sending unit. With someone watching the gauge on the dash... (you do not want to max out the gauge for more than a few seconds at a time) ground the wire to the block of the motor. The gauge should pin to max pressure on the gauge. If it does not pin to max you may have more problems (gauge, wire, or oil pump failure) then just a bad sending unit... 8)

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