Low Oil Pressure

[JRad405]

My stock oil pressure gauge isn't sitting in the normal. It is a little whacky. It will go from the middle of normal to low towards the "n" or "o" and then go back to the middle of normal and then the needle will move around sometimes. I changed my oil pressure sending unit and it didn't seem to help. I have no idea what to actually do from there. I'm thinking its a bad ground or the connecting piece needs to be cleaned because I have been driving my car for about 10k miles like that and I don't have a knock or piston slap or and other abnormal noise. And I don't lose oil either, but I don't know if that would be a symptom of low oil pressure.

I read the oil pressure sensors are on/off switches so I was thinking that it could be just my gauge is just acting up due to age.

Some of my pcv tubes are cracked around the grommets, could that cause low oil pressure? I will probably replace them anyway, unless my engine is completely screwed.

Is there another way to tell if I'm running normal. I was thinking of running an autometer guage just to see where the pressure was sitting to know if I'm completely screwed or not.

I really do think it is a bad ground but it will have to wait until Tuesday for me to check that? By the way where would the ground connector be for this?

 

[blkmcnasty]

If you read around these forums a little bit you will discover that we are all in agreement that our guages from the factory are horribly inaccurate. If you plan on keeping your car i would highly reccommend switching to aftermarket with some sort of pod of your choice of location. The guages dont have to be expensive but could save you money and headaches such as this in the long run by having correct readings.

 

[JRad405]

I have pretty much decided on getting some gauges. At least just the oil pressure gauge for now just for some peace of mind.

 

[HuskerGT]

I had a similar problem. My oil pressure gauge & temp gauge started to fluctuate in a doesn't-make-sense-way. And had been that way for a season (we get lots of sbow out here). Anyway, it turned out to be a bad ground that my mechanic found somewhere near the back of the engine compartment. He got mating surfaces cleaned up and all is well.
I'd suggest finding out where all the ground connections are and go through them one at a time before spending any money on things you may not need.