How accurate is the factory oil gauge/sensor in an 87 n/a?

Mine reads at near ZERO at a warm idle. The engine runs smoothly, blows no smoke, makes no noise;and the oil pressure will climb if I blip the throttle. The pressure will climb to around 60 psi +/- while driving.

Is the pressure really that low? How low is too low?

 

Check it with an external pressure gauge.. Maybe your gauge is going dead. And if its not.. That seems pretty low. My oil presure is 20-30psi at idle and a little over 60 on highway driving.

 

woops my bad ;P didnt mean to post here

 

I second this. My #'s exactly as well.

 

Well I'm just the opposite.
I think my idle pressure is aobut 30 or 40, I havn't really checked. but durring operation, I get about 110 at highyway speed. I've been thinking this is unusual, but I always forget to post and ask about it when I'm here. this is on an 86 auto. apparently this is not the origonal motor. I don't know anything thing about it except the numbers don't match the car, and it didn't run when I got it. somebody boached the install best I can figure. grounding issues and things.

 

well my 88tII was showing nothing so I just put in an fc3s.com oil pedestal and and electric oil pressure guage and everything now reads fine! I would do this as the hole setup was only 110 bucks for the pedestal (comes with holes drilled for oil pressure and temp gauges) and the oil pressure gauge. You don't want to ride around just assuming your gauge is just not working.

 

The stock sending units arn't worth a dern. Get u some aftermarket guages.

 

Mine reads 30ish at idle, 70ish at speed. Seems perfectly accurate to me.

My water temp is another thing entirely, it reads 1/2 at 160 and is almost topped out at 190.

Aftermarket gauges are definatly the way to go.

 

The first thing to do is check the oil pressure sender on the engine.



I cured low oil pressure readings by cleaning both the sender and connector and making sure there was a solid connection. They were covered in oil and gunk, which obviously doesn't conduct very well. If that doesn't work then check it with a mechanical gauge (or buy and fit an aftermarket one).

 

Wow! thanks for all the input, guys. I'll start by cleaning the contacts and try to get a good pressure reading. Then I can address the other gremlins that are attacking my 7.