Hey guys im a new corvette owner and have only put about 1000 miles on my car since I bought it in January. Its a bone stock 2002 Z06 with 28 k miles on it. Car runs great and has given me no issues.

Today I was driving it and just so happened to look down at the gauges and notice the oil pressure gauge was running high. It was slightly over 70psi and almost pegging the gauge out. It was about 60 degrees outside and car had been running for 5 minutes or so, in 4th gear at 3500rpm. Pressure did not drop off too quickly when i pushed the clutch in and let it coast. As i got off my exit on the highway and sat a the light the pressure eventually dropped to 35psi at idle. Never really paid too much attention to it before except just noticing it hanging around the middle of the gauge. Im not overly concerned but its just weird to see any gauge almost pegged out besides the fuel gauge, and that is rare too.

I have driven the car in colder weather and never noticed this before. It has mobile 1 5w-30 in it and the oil is fresh. I already tried doing a search and found some issues with the sending units, and many about what pressure should be at. All the post have drastically different normal operating oil pressure specs.

Basically just wondering if seeing over 70psi oil pressure is normal in this car. Thanks!

 

What was the oil temperature?

I would expect higher pressures when its cold and as the oil warms up they'll drop some.

If it pegs the gage to max the moment you turn on the ignition, the oil pressure sender just went out to lunch.

 

I did not check the oil temp through the cluster. That would probably help. Still just weird to me to have any gauge pegged.

 

No, it'll do that when it's cold and the RPMs are up. I assume there is a bypass valve in the OEM pump but I don't know at what PSI it opens.

Do you know what kind of oil is in it?

 

Oil pressure should be 20 to 80 psi (140 to 550 kPa).
In certain situations such as long, extended idles on hot days, it could read as low as 6 psi (40 kPa) and still be considered normal. It may vary with engine speed, outside temperature and oil viscosity, but readings above the shaded area show the normal operating range. Readings in the shaded area tell you that the engine is low on oil, or that you might have some other oil problem.

(From Owner's Manual)

 

oil is mobile 1 5w-30

 

My Z is around 30 PSI at idle with oil temp around 210.

 

The oil pressure sensor is in the back of the eninge behind the intake into the cowl and they fail due to overheating. My car had a faulty one at 8000 miles.There are some threads on replacing them and your options on doing so. I replaced mine placing it on the lower part of the engine block so as not to have a problem anymore. Some people drill a hole in the cowl, otherwise you end up taking the intake off just to change the sensor and with the heat it gets they can fail again.

Carlos

 

With the key on and engine off, do you read zero oil pressure? If you read anything else, your oil pressure sensor is on its way out. I've never seen 70 lbs pressure under any temp or oil conditions with a properly operating sensor on any of the C5's I've owned. Just watch and see if it starts to creep up more and more. If the sensor is bad, it'll eventually read 80 lbs all the time and you could possibly leak oil out of it.