2 Min Video Of My Oil Guage

[chances]

Hi .. ive attached a little video of my oil pressure readings cause sometimes they go all crazy and freak me out.

Ive had the sender unit changed and it had read differently since then but still way off what I think is normal ( which might not be right )

The next step is to get an aftermarket guage I guess ...

Anyway plz let me know what u think ...

Oh the video is a little shaky too sorry

Max

Video017.wmv

[[email protected]]

Skyline oil pressure gauges/senders are apparently really dody, however id say switch to aftermarket asap so to see wether it is indeed stuffing up.

[paulr33]

the pressure seems lower than normally across the entire range.

like when you are idle or moving slow its too low and when you are up near redline (around 5k) its near 3bar i would have expected a little higher. the pressure seems to low to be normal.

does it idle and run ok? i would expect noises, pops, smoke, bangs etc if the pressure was that low. i would also expect an idiot light to come on indicating low oil pressure if it in fact was getting that low (less than 1 bar) according to the guage. ive seen another r32 like this (gtst) and it had no idiot light on but mega low oil pressure. was checked by a mechanic and reported as OK

[chances]

Yea ive never seen the light come on, usually its never that low and reads how it should i think ... 4bar when cold and then just past the 1st bar when warm. But then all of a sudden it will just drop for 5 mins and then go back to normal, doesnt matter if your stopped or going, totaly random...

It drives perfect hey, got a new exaust and it does backfire lots when slowing down with gears but it runs hard and sounds good hey...

the pressure seems lower than normally across the entire range.

like when you are idle or moving slow its too low and when you are up near redline (around 5k) its near 3bar i would have expected a little higher. the pressure seems to low to be normal.

does it idle and run ok? i would expect noises, pops, smoke, bangs etc if the pressure was that low. i would also expect an idiot light to come on indicating low oil pressure if it in fact was getting that low (less than 1 bar) according to the guage. ive seen another r32 like this (gtst) and it had no idiot light on but mega low oil pressure. was checked by a mechanic and reported as OK

[paulr33]

well i guess all u can do is speak to your tuner or mechanic

and go the guage is telling me high and low pressure

maybe something in the internals is shagged or the guage/sender is on crack. best to check to be sure and safe

[chances]

Yea will do, might get some cash together and get a decent guage too .... suppose ill know then, just that it looks like the guage is faulty to me cause the reading is all over the place, could the oil pressure really be that dogey if the pump is on the way out or something ??

well i guess all u can do is speak to your tuner or mechanic

and go the guage is telling me high and low pressure

maybe something in the internals is shagged or the guage/sender is on crack. best to check to be sure and safe

[paulr33]

well it certainly is possible. i just dont know how the engine would react with such low pressure. it could go bang or it could be fine. im not sure. like it might be ok for another week or it could fail in 10 minutes time (if in fact the pressure is true and that low)

[chances]

mmm that would suck ... haha been ok for like 4 months tho .. but u never know

yea cool well thanks for ur suggestions Ü

well it certainly is possible. i just dont know how the engine would react with such low pressure. it could go bang or it could be fine. im not sure. like it might be ok for another week or it could fail in 10 minutes time (if in fact the pressure is true and that low)

[ish]

yep, behaves exactly the same as mine .... I got a gauge man to run some test's and re calibrate it ... He re soldered the circuit's on the rear of the gauge and it worked well for about 3 weeks before it became intermitent again.

Another Mechanic friend made up a test tool and it was fine as per pressure.

Form my small experience with these dodgi oil pressure gauges the red light is the one to watch and worry about.

[ido09s]

I would certainly have it tested. Its common for the sender unit to fail, though its also common for the oil pump to literally come apart from the back end which also then shows low oil pressure. we have a Trust gauge at work that we normally hook up to make sure its not the pump. Takes about 20 minutes to test and then you know for sure whats wrong with it

[Beer Baron]

paul i would love to know how low oil pressure = backfiring car/smokey car/banging?! I cant say i've ever seen a connection.

As everyone has suggested it's one of two things. faulty gauge, or genuinely low pressure (could be worn engine, damaged pump, loose backing plate etc etc).

Rather than stuffing around with the factory guage I would guy an aftermarket electronic gauge. Though even having heard all the stories of dud gauges I run a Defi gauge in my GTR and compared to the stock gauge the readings are very close. The main difference is the stock gauge is very, very slow to react where as the Defi is lightening fast. FTR my oil pressure is around 9 bar cold, around 2.3 at warm idle and anywere from 4-7 when driving.

[Cubes]

Looks exactly how my guage reads from time to time. Has its bad days and its good. Quite strange how intermittent it is.

I've had mine do this with the old motor since I bought it ~110,000km's, dropped the new motor in and it was exactly the same for another 40,000kms or so.

I had it tested as I also had a oil pressure problem when braking results where its either the sender or the guage.

Mine always works correctly when everything is cold, 15-20mins down the road and it starts playing up 'sometimes'.

When I looks exactly I really mean exactly.. 100% exactly where it sits low and how it reacts and how high it goes when reving. I suspect my issue is the sender as a really quick rev to 5000rpm+ 'sometimes' gets the guage working correctly again.

As I said mines been like this since I bought the car which was 4.5yrs ago.

But do get yours tested, however it is cheaper to simply buy an elec guage. They are not that expensive.

If possible do a little test for me...

Drive at 80-100km/h and really hit the brakes to stop as quick as possible.

What the oil guage as you do so... Mine for some strange reason stops working, the needle drops to 0 and the red oil light comes on. As I said above I've had it tested with a seperate oil pressure guage and it reads normal meanwhile the std drops to 0.

[tridentt150v]

I'd get it tested asap. A test is cheap, an engine rebuild is expensive.

As they say could be the gauge, could be the oil pump. A test will tell you which it is.

[chances]

Cool, going to line up a guage and a pillar mount jobby and have it all nice and snazzy ... hopefully its the guage !! hehe drives hard tho but i guess its better to test it then to have to rebuild

Thanks for all the replies =)

[T04GTR]

i take its a vid of the factory guage? il not bother then

first thing to do is get a aftermarket mechanicl one or an electric defi one. one that responds quickly only way to be sure

[Cubes]

Those defi guages look so damn nice... I just couldn't bring my self to paying the price.

I know the speco guages don't appear to look any where near as nice but from what I've seen they all sit smack on the 0 when off. Unlike some of the others I've seen and read about even that are a little off from factory.