The oil pressure on my car has gone south and I'm not exactly sure what actions I should take against it. These are the symptoms...

Start engine, pressure goes up to 60psi, stays for about 20 seconds, then falls to almost 0

At Idle Oil pressure stays at Zero, but if I drive it around it will randomly shoot back up to 60

Oil level is still constant, so I'm not loosing anything, and the oil is fresh.


I'm scared to drive it, because I'm not sure if the Guage is going on it, or if My oil pressure has died or what? Any suggestions as to diagnosis? Think its the Sensor, The pump?

 

Probably the connector needs to be scratched up so it gets a good electrical connection on the sender unit most likely. When the engine is run, it probably is fluxuating because of engine vibration is playing havic on the weak connection.

 

VERY VERY common problem, either the oil pressure sending units electrical connector is dirty, not connecting good, or the sending unit is bad... ($57 from mazda)

 

The others are right. Very common. Clean it up and it should work fine. If your oil pressure was at 0, the motor would die. Mine took a dive and would idle at like 10psi once warm, but it still hit 70psi over 3k. Motor always ran great, so who knows.

 

Mine used to do it all the time, Id just downshift and gun the gas and it would start working again for a few minutes and start its **** again... Well anyways, if it truely had 0 oil pressure, I doubt it would have went about 50k until it craped out

 

That makes me feel a lot better.. So, how complicated of a fix is this?

I'm not exactly sure where the sending unit is even located, but I would feel a lot better having it fixed before I drive it around a lot.

 

If you have a haynes(or the like) manual, it pretty much tells you how to take everything apart. You might need to take the tach cluster out. (Which is no big deal.) I can't remember for sure what is required to do, but from the sounds of it, it should be fairly easy.

-Error402

 

I don't see a section in the Haynes that coveres the Sending unit itself. It covers the level sensor, and Pressure sensor... is that the sending unit?

 

The pressure sensor is the sending unit. It is a gold colored "mushroom" above the rear spark plugs. Take off the wire, clean up the contacts. Should be good.

 

Yeah golden colored mushroom looking thing, kinda resembles a bell I think mazda's description of it is oil pressure electric switch (well thats what it said on the package for the new one) But you know how JAP->ENG transalations go