WhiteKnight

I seem to be having a problem the last couple days. My dash keeps on telling me that I'm out of oil, yet when I check my dipstick it says I'm still full. Any idea what could be the cause of this? Thanks

bobsroc

The sending unit most likely is bad, should be down by the oil filter somewhere.

Air_Adam

Think "oil pressure" not "oil level"

WhiteKnight

ahh, thanks you guys. its just i'm goin on a road trip tomorrow and I knew you'd be able to tell me the problem a hell of a lot faster than it would take me to figure it out

Nixon1

Just make sure there's no knocking or clicking noises accompanying that zero gauge reading.. Like most said, it's probably just a bad sender.

bobsroc

Oh, good call Nixon, you can have lots of oil with no pressure, hopefully that is not your problem. Since you didn't tell us about knocking or clanking I would still think sender.

WhiteKnight

ya, no knocking or clickin... for future reference tho, if i did have a knocking, what would that be?

bobsroc

No oil pressure at all. Big time trouble.

WhiteKnight

you guys call it the sender... would that be the oil pump? its the only thing i see in the book...

i hope its not the same thing, i really dont wanna lift the engine up to take the oil pan out

bobsroc

No not the oil pump, the sending unit is normally on the mount that the oil filter screws on. It will have a wire/s connected to it. Disconnect it, take it to an auto parts store and they should be able to help you from there. Good luck.

WhiteKnight

ok, so i can't get a hold of a jack tonight, nor does the local parts shop have the right sender....

question... is my pressure actually low, or does the sender simply tell my dash about oil? cuz i'm supposed to go ona road trip 2morrow. not far. bout 3 hour round trip. if it just tells the dash about oil then i should still be fine right? or is it unfortunately in charge of the pressure itself?

Nixon1

Your oil pump produces oil pressure. Your sender REGISTERS the pressure and sends it to your gauge. If your oil pump produces pressure, that means the fault is in the sender, or the gauge. Unfortunately, I know of no easy effective way to check for oil pressure without using a sender and gauge that are verified as working.

WhiteKnight

well if i cruise around town for 30-45 minutes tonight with my guage telling me i'm at 0 without incident, it would be safe to assume that my pressure is fine and i'm simply getting a bad signal from the sender right?

Stekman

mechanical gauge tells all.

pvt num 11

Well, if you take off your oil fill cap and run the engine, you SHOULD see oil up in the heads, if your pump is producing oil pressure. I changed the oil on my wife's car and forgot the cap. It was neat watching the rockers rotate and the springs conpress and relax. Oil was everywhere, but that was likely beccause I had just finished pouring four quarts of Mobil 1 synthetic into it. I don't know how GOOD it is to run an engine with the cap off, though... even for a short time. Anyone else know?

No oil pressure should have fragged your motor real quick, you should have heard it self-destructing by now. My old car's oil gage would peg out when I ran the car, so I never knew how much oil pressure I really had. It ran fine, so I doubt I had lubricating issues, just a screwed up gage.

ljnowell

It wont hurt to run with the cap off to look. many people set valve lash withthe engine running and the valve covers off.

Nixon1

Agreed...no harm done there.

And I dont know about the engine self-destructing from no oil... You'd be AMAZED at what I've seen at work. Chryslers...although they undoubtably run like crap always....will run FOREVER on zero oil or with sludged motors. We had a car drive in here once. It was running FOR WEEKS with no oil and no transmission fluid. We filled both up, it was smoking blue, but the knocking and top end noise faded, and the car drove out of here without a problem. It was a Plymouth Breeze (aka Chrysler Cirrus rebadged)

But yeah, if you had no oil pressure, you would undoubtable hear a substantial amount of top-end noise pretty quickly. Chatter pretty much.