I daily drive my 7 to and from work and occasionally around town. From the day I got it, I've noticed that at least 3 to 4 times a day, the oil pressure will spike from the standard 30 and go to the top of the meter to where it cant go any higher and cap out. Like above the 110 mark.

I've heard the stock oil pressure gauges have issues, but Mine doesn't do it all the time. It's very random. Some days it'll be perfectly fine. Others, it'll spike over 110, then drop back to the standard 15 at idle, 30 when im driving.

Anyone have and ideas as what to check?

 

On a side note, the car seems to have less power and I can feel more heat coming from the transmission tunnel when it does this.

 

do you have the condenser connected by the slave cylinder? its a small black thing with 1 wire coming off it.

 

Most likely the sending unit or the wiring to the gauge.
Next most likely, the gauge itself.

Least likely, the oil pump/engine.

I think you're imagining the "extra heat" from the tunnel area- at least as far as it correlates to the oil gauge spikes.

 

Well its always hot. Maybe I just notice it more when I see the gauge go up. I'm not really sure anymore...

I have bigger issues than my oil pressure gauge acting up now.

 

I've realized now the pressure only rises when I'm on the gas heavily. Not high rpm, just on the gas hard.

I'm 100% sure of this as I drove around trying it as soon as I noticed it. If I press the gas too hard, the gauge will spike, but if I let off enough to keep it at a constant rpm, the pressure drops back to 30 psi.

 

How can you be "on the gas hard" without the RPMs rising along with it?

The easiest first move would be to hook up a mechanical pressure gauge and see what's happening.
If it agrees with your stock gauge then you have something weird going on in the motor- and I sympathize since I have something similar going on myself.

If it doesn't- and this is most likely- then you probably just have a bad sending unit.

 

Well, I'm driving on a blown motor right now, I just don't want it to be 100% of the way gone until I have a 2nd unit around ready to install (which I don't at the moment).

And by "hard on the gas", I mean flooring it. I have a carb'd setup, don't know if it makes a difference, but I can mash the gas and even though the rpm isn't going anywhere, the oil pressure gauge still spikes.

 

Right then.
All bets are off.