I am not that great of a mechanic so I am hoping I can get an answer from my fellow NAM'ers. My oil pressure gauge is bouncing around like crazy. I checked the oil level and its fine. I think it may be a loose wire. Where does the oil pressure gauge wire go to in the engine? Where do I look? Detailed explanation would be great. Sorry if this is a stupid question, just not that great with mechanical stuff!!!!!!

 

Well, to address your question, the oil pressure gauge, if electrical, has a wire that goes to the engine on the oil pressure sender. It is a thing like this, if the gauge is an aftermarket one:



Its location depends on where the sender was placed, but the most common location is near the oil filter, so on the passenger's side of the car.

If, instead, you have the chrono pack and the gauge is the OEM one, the sender is probably like this:



and it will surely placed near the oil filter case, thus on the passenger's side of the car.

Now a question for you. What does it mean that it "bounces around"? Because if by that you mean the pressure varies during driving, when you hit the gas or when you slow down, then it is perfectly normal, assured that it stays within certain values that should be around these ones:

Idle when cold: 60/70 psi
Idle when warm: 40 psi
Idle when hot: 20/22 psi
Under load (spirited driving): 60/80 psi
Cruising when cold/warm: 60/70 psi
Cruising when hot: 50/60 psi

 

If the wires are tight it could be the oil pressure sender. I have had to replace mine at about 40,000 miles. I seem to remember posts of people having problems with the senders because they tend to vibrate too much.

 

Thanks for the info guys. I will check the wire tomorrow. I have the two after market gauges that promini sells next to the tachometer, one is oil pressure the other is boost. So I guess it's electical. I don't know if it's the same as the OEM gauge. If the wire is fine I guess I have to replace the sender right? When the gauge was working properly the gauge would read exactly as you described under driving conditions, but now it's bounces from 0 to 50 erraticly, like it is moving left to right in a bouncing fashion, definately not normal!!!!!

 

Oh, ok then. It's probably the wire or the sender, you should have one like the first I posted a picture of

 

so it's going to be in the engine compartment on the passenger side, or underneath the car on the passenger side? Sorry if these questions are stupid!!!!

 

I have the same ProMini gauges. The oil pressure sender is located below the oil filter. The ProMini gauge oil pressure sender and the stock idiot light sender screw into an adapter fitting (at the location of the stock sender). You should be able to see the senders by looking from the engine compartment down towards the oil filter (on the firewall side of the engine block and on the passenger side of the car). The gauge oil pressure sender looks just like the smaller picture in Post #2 (copper colored sender). The stock sender (bigger picture in Post #2) with the green connector will be the other sender going into the adapter fitting. There is only one wire going to the gauge oil pressure sender. As seen in the picture of Post #2, the wire goes on the stud and is held in place by a nut (right side of sender in picture). You should be able to reach down and make sure the nut is tight. You should also try to follow the wire to make sure it is not shorting-out somewhere along the path. When I was troubleshooting mine I verified it was the sender by temporarily adding a redundant wire from the sender to the gauge. You can order a new sender from Auto-Meter or e-gauges.

 

All fixed guys!!!! It was the connector on the wire that was loose. I cut that one off and spliced the wire and put a new connector on and its working perfectly now!!!!!!!!! Thanks again for all the help!!!

 

I am glad it was simple to fix. Much better than having to replace the sender.

 

Good to hear