AARGHH ! Heart attack

[lrg_machine]

OK

Driving to work this morning and noticed the oil pressure gauge was suddenly reading ZERO, off the scale, NOTHING AT ALL..

Pulled over, panicked, looked, listened, and noticed the low oil pressure telltale wasn't lit but does come on when tested with the ignition.

There is plenty of oil, and no oil being lost, and removing the oil filler there is fresh oil up top.

Dead gauge?

Dead sender?

Any thoughts.

Also realised

blood pressure is inversly proportional to oil pressure

Edited November 14, 2005 by lrg_machine

[mchlrodrigues]

OK

Driving to work this morning and noticed the oil pressure gauge was suddenly reading ZERO, off the scale, NOTHING AT ALL..

Pulled over, panicked, looked, listened, and noticed the low oil pressure telltale wasn't lit but does come on when tested with the ignition.

There is plenty of oil, and no oil being lost, and removing the oil filler there is fresh oil up top.

Dead gauge?

Dead sender?

Any thoughts.

Also realised

blood pressure is inversly proportional to oil pressure

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Try grounding the sender wire and see what the gauge needle does. If the needle pegs, it's the sender. Otherwise, gauge check power supply, fuses and connections. It could be the gauge, but it's rather unlikely.

Mike

[lrg_machine]

Anyone got a piccy of where the oil pressure sender is.

I've looked in the service notes but can't see the location of the sender unit.

Cheers

[x6gas]

It's a bugger to get a photo of!

Put you hand under the intake plenum to the left of centre and you should be able to feel the connectors to the round sender on the oil gallery.

The guage should go off the scale if the circuit is open.

[glynherron]

Hi Jez,

Missed you on Sunday !

The sender unit looks like a small tin can, with a spade connector on the top.

From the rear of the car, if you find the starter motor body the sender unit is mounted slightly higher ie to the left.

You will probably need a mirror and handlamp to find it !!

To change it I had to remove the starter motor to get a spanner on it (although I did find that the starter needed attention as well!!

The oil pressure tell tale is controlled by another sender that looks like a conventional one and is fitted adjacent to the gauge sender.

BEWARE: The tell tale light only illuminates if there is no oil pressure above 2000rpm, and not at tickover.

If you want a photo, I am changing my expansion tank over this weekend and with the boot floor out, I 'might' get able to get a photo. If you want a phot of the old unit that I replaced, I think I have it kicking about somewhere - let me know.

Glyn

[s4simon]

Look under here...

and you'll see it...

The sender that is

Sorry to mention that they were selling brand new oil pressure gauges for

[lrg_machine]

Look under here...

and you'll see it...

The sender that is

Sorry to mention that they were selling brand new oil pressure gauges for

[fmxa]

Don't panic just yet! I had the exact same issue a few months back - recommend you put a mechanical gauge on, and then check pressure. Ended up replacing sender and gauge (not an easy item to find) and voila everything now looks great!

[lrg_machine]

Don't panic just yet!  I had the exact same issue a few months back - recommend you put a mechanical gauge on, and then check pressure. Ended up replacing sender and gauge (not an easy item to find) and voila everything now looks great!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Cheers chap

I've got all the old gauges from an Elite I broke a few years back, I'm sure one of those will be good enough to test things out, just to see where the fault lies.

[lrg_machine]

OK Update

Saturday is here, and I get to look for the problem.

So open up the car, can't see anything amiss, start her up and, you've guessed it.

The bloody thing is working again!

Cars ! ! don't you just luv em !