pressure light

[GUY L]

the light doesent come on to its full brightness and it olny comes on sometimes the light just flickers slightly when i stop.but if i just take my foot off the brake it goes away the car runs awesome i dont know. how do i put a different oil pressure gauge in it.my uncle told me it could be the sensor swicth. i need help!!!! oh yea spadtt i got my oil changed at the ford dealer in mass i think it is 5w30.let me know what you guys think.

 

[jthomas68]

Like was said,stop driving it.The engine may be destroyed if you continue to drive it.Although hopefully it is just a bad sending unit,what you`re describing sounds worse.The light comes on at 9psi.It goes off when you leave from a stop because with more rpms,the psi goes up.As for setting up an oil pressure guage,what year and trans is your SHO?

 

[shojuan]

You can get a cheap mechanical oil pressure gauge for $7 from walmart. Even if you don't want to mount it in your dash, you can just hook it up by removing the stock oil pressure sender and screwing the gauge adapter into its place. Then you can see what your actual pressure is. If it seems OK at idle and at 3000 rpms cold, then let the engine warm up to normal operating temperature (and a little extra time for the oil to warm up since oil temp rise lags behind cooling system temp rise) and again take idle and 3000 rpm readings. The oil pressure will be somewhat lower at normal operating temperatures.

If the gauge is showing some ridiculously low oil pressure then as Jeremy said DON'T DRIVE THE CAR. Keep in mind that a properly working idiot light comes on at about 5 psi which is why when these things come on the damage is usually done.

Rick

 

[jthomas68]

Btw,normal psi at cold idle is 62-65psi.Hot idle psi should be no lower that 11psi.

 

[GUY L]

could some one tell me how i know if it is the sender. how much it costs and can you do it yourself or is it something for the dealer to do. if something was really messed up wouldent the car run like crap. i am not going to drive it till i know what to do so could you guys let me know what to do.SOOON!!
THANKS

 

[shojuan]

Well, like we have been trying to tell you, get a gauge on there. That means unscrewing the old sender and screwing a gauge sender/adapter in its place. You have raise the car up a bit (ramps or jack stands), look for where the oil drain plug is on the oil pan then go up and to the left a bit. It will be below the head and somewhat to the left and above the block drain plug. There should be a wire attached, although mine has been known to work lose (when the wire is off the light will *not* light up ever, so I assume yours is still connected). Access will be a little tight, but you need to unscrew this and then replace it with a gauge sender. If you get a friend to drive you to walmart so you can get a $7 gauge then instead of a sender you will have a little fitting and some adapters. Find out which adapter has the same threads as your original fitting. A polyethylene hose fits in there like a plumbing compression fitting. The other end of the hose goes to a compression fitting on the gauge. It's in the instructions.

Yes, when you get the gauge hooked up you will not yet know if your sender is bad. It is at this point that you will start the car and run the diagnostic described above, noting the idle oil pressures that Jeremy provided. If your oil pressure is reading normal on the gauge then your sender is bad. If your oil pressure is low then your sender was correctly telling you to stop the car the whole time and you will need to fix the low oil pressure problem.

I hope this helps.

Rick

 

[shojuan]

BTW, if it turns out the sender is bad, they are about $5 from NAPA. You really need to test your oil pressure with a gauge first like I described above.

Rick

 

[GUY L]

Thanks everyone for helping me i know i sound like a tool but this is the first time i have had a oil problem i dont know to much about it.i am going to do this tomorrow and i will let you know the outcome.

 

[Yamaha V6]

Actually, I got to mine easily from the top. Pull the air intake tubing, maybe pop the TB off to get some working room (optional). Just under the rear head, on the driver's side. I believe it's a 26 or 27mm socket (from memory).

 

[shojuan]

GUY L:
Thanks everyone for helping me i know i sound like a tool but this is the first time i have had a oil problem i dont know to much about it.i am going to do this tomorrow and i will let you know the outcome.

Not at all! We're just starting to worry that you'll get so frustrated with your SHO you'll start beating on it with a sledge hammer! I was in the same boat as you a few months back with my truck. It turns out the oil pressure WAS low. Not wanting to take the engine apart right now I tried 20W/50 conventional, that helped a bit. Then 20W/50 Redline synthetic. That keeps the oil pressure up in my truck to almost the specified range. Only problem is the truck burns a quart of oil every 200-300 miles at $8 a quart! DOH! At least it's getting the best gas mileage it has ever had (22mpg, used to get 16mpg. The best average it used to get was 19mpg). So with the expense of redline oil at 22 mpg, it's like I'm getting 16 mpg again hehe. Note: if your SHO's oil pressure is low, fix it right rather than going the synthetic 20W/50 route like my truck! wink

Jeremy, thanks for pointing out that the sender can be reached from the top! I have a new one to put in, I'll try getting at it that way.

Rick

 

[jthomas68]

Actually,that was Fred.I didn`t know you could reach it from the top either.

GUYL,just since you`ve never done it before,and don`t know what you`re looking at,i`d suggest going from the bottom the 1st time.On the back of the motor,starting from the bottom,you`ll see a sender with a wire coming out of it.Go up a few more inches,and you`ll see another one.That is the one you want.The lower on is the oil LEVEL sender,that will not give you the proper psi.As always,let us know if you get stuck.

 

[shojuan]

Oops! Thanks Fred!

Yeah, going from bottom is probably best the first time. I just took a casual look from the top and couldn't see it.
Rick