Almost toasted my engine changing the oil pressure sender
12-13-04, 09:07 PM
#1
Almost toasted my engine changing the oil pressure sender
Last night around midnight I finally got my car ready to go again after it spending two weeks on jacks waiting for some parts. I had replaced the plugs, wires and oil filter mount o-rings, put new washers on the hard oil line next to the filter mounts, and installed a new oil pressure sender.
I started the car and everthing sounded super for about a second - then oil started gushing from the engine bay, and I mean gushing. I quickly turned off the ignition and jumped out of the car to find the ground and the driver's side of the engine bay coated with oil. It was not a fun moment - I had visions of an expensive rebuild and thrashed scored rotors.
I initiall assumed that I must have forgotten to reconnect an oil line or had not tightened the sender properly, but the only line I worked on was the hard line next to the oil filter mount and it was fine, as was the sender. Given the underhood mess, it took me a while to trace the source of the 'leak'. Turns out I had put the sender into the unused knock sensor location just above the trailing plug on the rear housing, leaving the sender location (which is hidden behind a spark plug wire) open and happy to spew oil. It had been a week since I had removed the sender so I did not notice that I had put it in the wrong place and the wire to the sender in the new location still fit perfectly. The sender will thread nicely into the knock sensor location too.
Fortunately, when I put the sender in the right place, filled up with oil (I has lot three quarts in about 3 seconds), and cleaned up the mess, the engine was perfectly ok. I felt relieved and reasonably stupid, but it was not all that hard to make the mistake that I made.
I started the car and everthing sounded super for about a second - then oil started gushing from the engine bay, and I mean gushing. I quickly turned off the ignition and jumped out of the car to find the ground and the driver's side of the engine bay coated with oil. It was not a fun moment - I had visions of an expensive rebuild and thrashed scored rotors.
I initiall assumed that I must have forgotten to reconnect an oil line or had not tightened the sender properly, but the only line I worked on was the hard line next to the oil filter mount and it was fine, as was the sender. Given the underhood mess, it took me a while to trace the source of the 'leak'. Turns out I had put the sender into the unused knock sensor location just above the trailing plug on the rear housing, leaving the sender location (which is hidden behind a spark plug wire) open and happy to spew oil. It had been a week since I had removed the sender so I did not notice that I had put it in the wrong place and the wire to the sender in the new location still fit perfectly. The sender will thread nicely into the knock sensor location too.
Fortunately, when I put the sender in the right place, filled up with oil (I has lot three quarts in about 3 seconds), and cleaned up the mess, the engine was perfectly ok. I felt relieved and reasonably stupid, but it was not all that hard to make the mistake that I made.
Last edited by moconnor; 12-13-04 at 09:28 PM.
12-13-04, 09:26 PM
#2
Rotary Freak
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Overland Park, KS
Posts: 2,360
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Glad you didnt learn your lesson any harder then you had to. That must be a mess with such a small hole and the pressure getting oil all over that side. Good luck with you future projects.
