A couple months ago, I was driving to visit friends with my wife about 30 miles from our house, on the trip the car sputtered a bit at highway speed in 5th or 6th and I noticed the Oil Pressure gage jump erratically, but we did get there. Kind of bucked, and felt like it wanted to stall out. On the way home, it did this again, except this time attempting a restart when it died at speed didn't work. The car is a manual, so I just threw it in Neutral and tried to restart it while coasting. The battery was about 3 years old and I hadn't driven the car in 2 weeks. The car died and would not start again, (probably not enough juice in the battery) so I had to get a flat bed tow home. The following day, I bought a new interstate battery at costco, and swapped it at home and the car started right up. Since I had P0522 on the DIC and I haven't changed the oil pressure sensor since 2008 I decided it was time to do it again. I bought the relocation kit from Ecklers and when I had spare time over the next month I worked on the car. I suspected the oil pressure sensor may have been bad months before any of this as I noticed a small leak of oil under the car so I felt this was all just fate telling me I had to do the replacement now. Installed the kit, checked for leaks, all good. I drove the car around town with no issues and parked it a few weeks ago. It's been on a battery tender the entire time so the battery is 100% good whenever I need to use the car. Last night, I tried to drive to the same area about 30 miles from the house and half way there while sitting in stand still DC traffic, the Oil Pressure gage went wild again, jumping from 0 to Max and in the middle bouncing and the RPMs fell and the car stalled out and died. I was able to restart it twice, but this time it worked on the 2nd restart as the battery was good. I got off on another exit and went back home and made it safely into the garage. The problem didn't come up again on the trip back. I wouldn't say I was in "limp home" mode because I'm pretty sure that the car tells you "reduced engine power" during that event. I popped off the fuel rail cover and looked at the oil pressure sensor and wiring harness, everything looked fine. I checked the dip stick, I hadn't lost any oil, still full and clear (recent oil change). I also haven't noticed any drops of oil leaking either from under the car or the base of the sensor relocation to the engine. I just got out the multi meter and measured the voltage and it shows 4.75 with the key turned on and the car not running at the oil pressure sensor plug. I know that's not 5 volts exactly, but its close and that also tells me the connector isn't frayed or anything. At this point I have no idea what to do other than take it to a shop. From searching this issue on here, I see that in the Northern VA area Koons Chevy in Tysons Corner is about as good as it gets. Since this is such a strange problem I'd rather take it to a place familiar with corvettes so that rules out my usual local shops. I also know that Tony's has a bad reputation here so I'm not going there.

One thing that I find hard to believe, but read on another reply to a post on this subject is that you can run the car fine with the oil sensor not connected??? Is that even true? I may have to do that just to get it to a dealer to fix it.

Another thing that I found on previous threads is that a bad oil filter can cause this? The oil was changed in April but it has only about 60 miles on it since that oil change but the filter they used is not AC Delco. That would be very strange if I just needed another oil change with a GM filter to fix this. If that were possible, I would do it myself.

I would try to get another OPS but the one on the ecklers kit is not the same as the original and I'm not sure what size it is. The kit isn't helpful as it doesn't tell you. All I know is that you need a 7/8" wrench to tighten it.

I do have a new AC delco oil pressure sensor on hand, but I'd prefer not to go through the effort of disassembling the car again to install it.

 

Pressure fluctuations on the gauge AND mechanical symptoms such as bucking and stalling are not due to a bad oil pressure sensor. If that was the case then every time a oil sensor went bad the car wouldn't be drivable. Change the oil filter with a GOOD one and you shouldn't have any more problems. Always start with the last thing done before the problem started happening which in this case was the oil change. Don't even have to change the oil if its only 60 miles on it. You're sure they used full synthetic right?

 

4.75 seems really low on your sensor !!...it has to be near 5 volts !!...4.98 is OK but 4.75 volts...NO !!...that’s why your car wouldn’t start...the 5 volt reference circuit is shared among all the sensors in the car...MAP, MAF, TPS, etc...since you are reading 4.75 disconnect the MAF sensor and see if the oil pressure sensor 5 volt ref. returns...most likely some other sensor is dragging the 5 volts down...you may have to do this on every sensor...make sure when using your voltmeter that you have it connected to a clean ground...I always use battery ground...see if it’s still 4.75 !!...pictured is my MAF sensor voltage...not 4.75 !!

 

The car does start, but I suppose I can check the other sensors after I change the oil filter. If one sensor is drawing too much, what's the remedy? I thought the oil pressure sensor was on its own circuit direct to the pcm. Since the oil/filter change was the last procedure before this problem I will start there. Hard to imagine a filter could cause such issues.

 

I would see if you have the same 4.75 volts on some of these other sensors...if you have another multimeter I would see if both read the same...the PCM has its own 5 volt regulator internally...probably wouldn’t be a bad idea to check the PCM power and grounds at the PCM.

 

It was the oil filter after all. The shop either used the wrong one or they didn't change it. Got another oil change with a real AC delco filter and the car is 100% fine. Just wanted to close this thread out for future reference.