Oil Pressure Gauge

thaliabobalia

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Hi, all. Just bought a 2000 Bright Silver Metallic GT convertible with a 5 speed tranny and only has 34,000 miles on the clock. I have a quick question about the oil pressure gauge....

It seems that on cold start, the gauge stays at 0 then will abruptly come alive and read in the middle. It will do this 2 or 3 times then will hold steady in the middle position. The oil was just changed and is at the correct level. Could this possibly be the sending unit going bad or a loose connection that tightens up under thermal expansion?

Also, is this a dummy gauge in the fact that it simply reads if there is pressure? I haven't seen the needle move under acceleration.

Thanks in advance!

Kevin
 

Snorky

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Its a dumby gauge, pressure or no pressure. More than likely the pressure sensor by your oil filter is acting up or you are having a grounding issue there. The pump gears are literally around your crankshaft snout. So if they were broken. You would know really fast
 

cobrajeff96

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It's a gauge that reads constant and the activation threshold is merely 6 psi. It's more like a switch than a gauge.

You can actually make it a true full sweep gauge, just go to accutach dot com to find out how.

For the mean time, it could be anything in the circuit from gauge itself, the sender (which grounds itself to the block by the threads), the wiring, or any combination thereof. I could be wrong, but I don't think Ford changed the circuit design for any year SN95 except for minor changes on the backs of the instrument clusters.
 
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thaliabobalia

thaliabobalia

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Hey, guys. Thank you all for your help and sharing your knowledge about this issue. I will give accutach a look and see what they have.

Thanks again
 
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thaliabobalia

thaliabobalia

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Do any of you think this could be the beginning sign of an oil pump going out? I read on another forum (corral.net) of a guy having the same problem as me and a few people responded that could be the pump going out, don't drive it, etc.

I know Snorky said the pump gears are around the crankshaft snort and it would be obvious if it was bad....

I'm going to be replacing the oil pressure sensor this weekend, just need to get to my dads house to use his lift.
 

cobrajeff96

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Seems unlikely an oil pump would be the thing to fail, first of all. You'd have to be two-stepping the car from a dead stop on slicks to break them more than likely.
 
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thaliabobalia

thaliabobalia

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I replaced the oil pressure sensor which was about $30.00 at my local Ford dealer and that solved the problem. Oil pressure consistently reads OK and no more gauge fluctuation. Really simple fix. For anyone who needs to replace this sensor you will lose around 1/2 quart of oil when you pop the sensor off.

Thank you all for your help!
 

apsmith49921

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The oil pump has powdered metal gears. They'll just break. It's been known they fail ar high rpm with improper balancing and dampening. If it fails its going to fail catastrophically not just over time
 

cobrajeff96

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...However I've seen Coyote owners have a single cracked 'tooth' in an OPG and the car still runs and pushes oil just fine. Often times the owner didn't even know they were broken until they just decided to upgrade OPGs. It's pretty funny when you see it on someone's youtube vid, "Oh wow, a broken OPG, what do you know?"

It's the harmonics that kill them.
 

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