Oil pressure bouncing.
Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: May 2021
Posts: 130
Likes: 27
Oil pressure bouncing.
I've looked through several threads and try to take the general census of all of them. I literally have only owned this car about 24hrs. Today while getting my plates my oil pressure dropped and bounced back up. Alarming at the least. Oil looks good. No leaking. Full. No noise from the motor. I don't know what the normal driving point is for that but mine was around a tick or 2 under 40. If I drove it spirituality it was hitting around 42psi. My worries is when it drops to close to 0 then picks back up. I know this isn't the best news. If the sending unit goes bad it peggs full or 0. Mine is jumping around. I guess I'm hoping to hear from some of you that you have had your pressure jump around and it still be the sensor. I have an appointment for a week from now that will test it with a mechanical sensor but I'm thinking I may try and change it myself before then just to see. What do you guys think? Any other tests I can do?
Thank you for your time
Thank you for your time
Drifting
Joined: Nov 2003
Posts: 1,645
Likes: 65
You have two paths as noted, one test with a mechanical gauge and isolate it a sender problem or just change the sender and see if the questionable intermittent oil pressure problem goes away. I feel the process of elimination is the path I would take, since the mechanical gauge test requires the sender to act up as you are testing. My only suggestion is with either path if the sender is replaced, add a remote sender kit so if the sender ever fails again the intake does not have to be removed.
Burning Brakes
Joined: Aug 2011
Posts: 831
Likes: 288
Check the oil filter. When I first bought mine i did an oil change. The filter came off with no effort at all. Whoever put it on just barely had it hand tight. Could be one cause of your problem amd easier to check then the sensor.
Race Director
Joined: Oct 2004
Posts: 12,864
Likes: 4,668
Buy a good quality aftermarket sensor. Usually recommend OEM, but NOT on the C5. The OEMs are junk. They don't even fail consistently, as you stated, sometimes burying the gauge, others showing zero. If it was me, I'd replace the sensor first. If it continues, go to the next step and check via gauge. If this happens most often after 'spirited' driving, it could very well be the oil pump relief valve sticking. Let's hope that's not it. Best of luck to you... ..
