Oil Pressure
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Joined: May 2007
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From: Detroit Michigan
Oil Pressure
I have a 90 RX7 vert. 13b. My question is . At idle I my oil pressure gauge shows almost no pressure at all. I have only driven the car about 10 to 15 miles. It run like a bat out of hell. Oil pressure goes way up, I don't remember how high and the car is 2 thousand away. I drove it on the Expressway it ran 85 mph no problem. It did however spit out a little antifreeze after I shut it off. Not sure of engine temp at the time. 
Any guesses as to the problem. I hoping it"s just a sending unit . Milage is about 134k. Thank for any help in advance. Dan
Any guesses as to the problem. I hoping it"s just a sending unit . Milage is about 134k. Thank for any help in advance. Dan
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Joined: May 2002
Posts: 3,838
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From: Kicking down doors in a neighborhood near you
Oil pressure should be around 30 psi at idle and 60+ when you are driving. I'm not sure how much you know about performing basic maintenance on cars, but if you have a pressure gauge, you can remove the sending unit and attach a mechanical gauge directly to the hole where the sending unit was and read the idle pressure on the mechanical gauge. If the mech gauge reads normal, your sending unit most likely is the problem.
As for the coolant, again, I don't know how much you know about cars, but the first thing I would do is look under the hood and see where the coolant came from. If the overflow bottle is full, then it wll overflow onto the ground. Hence, your coolant problem. The water/coolant mixture expands when it gets hot (its called thermal expansion), building pressure and talking up more space. Its normal and happens all cars. If someone fills the overflow bottle to the top and the system already has enough coolant to fill the bottle when the coolant is hot, then this will cause an overflow. A properly filled system will allow some coolant to expand into the overflow reservoir, but not enough to spill out. When the coolant cools off, it creates a suction to pull the coolant out of the reservoir and back into the system. If coolant is coming out from the pressure cap on the radiator, then the the cap is bad. If the system is overheating (pay attention to your gauge when you drive, as overheating is the fastest way to kill an engine next to running it with no oil) then the thermostat is bad.
As for the coolant, again, I don't know how much you know about cars, but the first thing I would do is look under the hood and see where the coolant came from. If the overflow bottle is full, then it wll overflow onto the ground. Hence, your coolant problem. The water/coolant mixture expands when it gets hot (its called thermal expansion), building pressure and talking up more space. Its normal and happens all cars. If someone fills the overflow bottle to the top and the system already has enough coolant to fill the bottle when the coolant is hot, then this will cause an overflow. A properly filled system will allow some coolant to expand into the overflow reservoir, but not enough to spill out. When the coolant cools off, it creates a suction to pull the coolant out of the reservoir and back into the system. If coolant is coming out from the pressure cap on the radiator, then the the cap is bad. If the system is overheating (pay attention to your gauge when you drive, as overheating is the fastest way to kill an engine next to running it with no oil) then the thermostat is bad.
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