ok heres my problem. lately ive been noticing that when iam driving at low rpms the stock oil pressure gauge is sitting at just a little bit above zero and when I come to a stop at idle the oil pressure gauge goes to zero. now when I rev it up around 3-4k it goes to about 30. but when the engine is warming up from being completely cold the oil pressure is good and high and I get 30 at idle. I mean is my gauge bad or what? I just got the engine back from rx-7 store (stage 2) and I have about 1k miles on it and tomorrow iam supposed to get tuned. I need some advice.

 

The sending unit connection needs cleaning or the unit is going bad. I have owned 3 3rd gens from 93-95 models and they have all had this issue. From what I understand oil pressure is not a big issue with Rotaries because they are oil injected. Flame me if you will

 

Dude,i recently bought a new pressure unit(50$),bc my old one had the same behavior like yours,i've installed it,and guess what?At idle it stays below middle,and during high boost it goes to zero....

 

ok just to clarify where is the sending unit? and how do I clean it? aslo if anything were going with thew oil system would it make kind of a screaching noise at low rpm?

 

Its mounted on the Side of the engine, near the bottem. the driver's side, Its a big cylinder looking thing, not to easy to get to, Just clean the plug

the stock gauge sucks any way, I have a aftermarket one, At idle stock shows 0. aftermarket 20-30psi

on the stock gauge 60psi can really be anywhere from 30-100 psi...lol

 

As far as the screaching, check your belts, I would sersiouly hope nothing having to do with oil screaching

 

mine was reading a little too high and then I took wd40 with the red straw and sprayed it in the plastic connector and on the spade connector and then wiped it off with a paper towel now its perfect. you should see much higher oil pressure when you first start the car until it is warmed up. 30 is ok for idle but when you boost it should go near the top.

 

factory one is $76 from malloy. i'm on my second one in 2 years

 

are you using syntetic oil...

 

That have something to do with it?

 

you get less oil pressure with syntetic since it is not as thick as regular oil..

 

I could be wrong but, I have a friend that had a similar problem when he ran syntetic oil.

 

I get this also cause i also got a autometer guage, i thought not to worry about it cause the stock guage isnt that accurate

 

sorry it took me so long to respond. No iam not using synthetic oil I use valvoline vr1 racing 20w50. Also how can you tell if it is your sending unit??

 

By replacing it and seeing if it solves the problem.

 

no, that is completely inaccurate, rotaries require higher than normal oil pressures, also they have only two main bearings...as opposed to a v6 with 3, or a I6 with 5

 

you know whats great about the 99 fd's in japan?

well they fixed the problem for the oil pressure gauge, by making it into a boost gauge. they still do have a low oil light though. i wouldnt be too worried about wasting money on a new sender unit, unless your really ****.

 

Sorry to bring this back but is it always just the plug that needs cleaning or should a guy take the whole sending unit off and look at it ? Or is the sending unit sealed up and nothing you could do about it anyways ?