ra ra rotory

I was driving my 89 gxl home yesterday, and after about an hour or so drive I was almost home, looked down and my oil pressure guage was sitting at like 15psi... So I got out, checked if it had oil, wiggled around the sender unit wire, and still with low pressure drove the rest of the way to my house.

Btw, Iv had this car for almost 2 years and it has always had 25-30psi during idle, about 60psi during normal driving, and 50-55ish for freeway cruisin. Oil changes every 2,500 miles and im running one of Atikins Rotary's oil filters. Im pretty sure that it just lost the oil pressure, ya know.. I keep a pretty good eye on my guages so this problem didnt just slowly creep up..

Now, from what iv read in other theads the most commen problems like this happen becuase of:

1) A bad sending unit (couldent that be ruled out since I still am reading some pressure, and the pressure is responding to throttle and increase in rps, but it just never gets about 30psi..) Can I replace the actual unit? Where does it actuallt go and how do I get it out? so I can clean it or something..

2)Therma Pellet- frankly I dont know what this is, but, From reading other post, if this was bad than it would keep good (normal) oil pressure when its cold and not when warm?

Its just all around consistantly low oil pressure.
This is freakin me out, so I would really appreciate some detailed help with this.

Thanks alot.

ra ra rotory

This hit bottem fast! BUMB!!!

HELP!!!!

garnersplc_2001

Just talked to Hayes Rotary about my problem too, they think its the thermal pellet. They want to hook up another calibrated gage to see if its really that low. If its low, they have a machined plug they replace them with, runs $198. More for the needed oil and filter change however.
My understanding is that the thermal pellet diminishes the oil flow to the front rotor when the car is cold, this is due to emissions. When the pellet fails, the oil pressure is always low.

ra ra rotory

Cool, ill look into it. Thanks

harley71105

My 88 did that and I got a replacement sending unit at Pep Boys (Arg) for $39...got more pressure now so it was in the unit...thats not a bad price for troubleshooting...then if thats not it you have a spare part that is bound to get harder to find unless its one of those universal fits a lot o model thingy ma bobbers...
its almost just below the oil filter a little to the left...be careful the water temp sending unit is right there also...and its kind of small and looks like easy to break...its a real pain to take off and an open end wrench worked better than anything...

garnersplc_2001

Could be that pesky o-ring in the front housing. If that leaks, you'll get consistent low oil pressure too. It is an internal leak and not noticeable. I hear it can be replaced with the engine in the car. I would e-mail some of our local rotary shops. Atkins, Hayes, Rapid Rotary etc...

garnersplc_2001

I just fixed my problem. Now I have 25-30 PSI at idle, 60 psi at 2200 RPM and 60+ PSI at 2500 RPM.
It was a faulty thermal pellet. Go to FC3S.com. It basically says to put 6mm worth of M-7 metric flat washers on the thermal pellet ( this makes it longer).
I used 6 washers (under a dollar). Got them at Tacoma Screw.
Before I had 10-15 PSI at idle, 30 PSI at 2500RPM and 50 PSI at 4000 RPM. When cold it seemed ok but not when hot!

garnersplc_2001

make that FC3S.org, look for the oil pressure problem fix.