most likeley the gauge just went out.. i would check the wires.. i would also check the sending unit. if all seems good and its the gauge itself.. just get a aftermarket gauge

Is there a way to check that my engine has oil? Dipstick shows normal level, does that mean I'm okay? If I was really getting NO oil pressure, what would be happening?

No oil pressure = blown motor. You've got oil on the dipstick so you're fine.

By your oil filter housing there is a round sensor with a connector on it. I'm willing to bet there isn't anything plugged in there.

Yeah, I did a search and found out about those wires, but I'm at work and haven't had time to check them. I just wanted to try and make sure I wasn't damaging my engine. If it runs fine I should be fine, right?

Most likely your oil pressure sending unit connector just came off, like ddavisaf said-- happens all the time. Just look under the car near your oil filter housing for a hanging wire and hook it back onto where it looks like it came from.

i had this SAME EXACT problem about 2 weeks ago now, and i just installed an aftermarket oil pressure gauge and my oil pressure is perfect! if the wire is connected on top of the sending unit, i would almost bet $100 that its just your gauge. just buy an aftermarket gauge and check it.

good luck!

calcifer said:

Yeah, I did a search and found out about those wires, but I'm at work and haven't had time to check them. I just wanted to try and make sure I wasn't damaging my engine. If it runs fine I should be fine, right?

Click to expand...

Yeah, you should be fine.

Ok, I may have big problems, car was running fine today, back and forth to work, stop to get some food at Chevy's, come back out and it sounds like its running on 3 cylinders. I didn't see any wires disconnected by the filter, so I had been thinking it was the sending unit that was bad. Could this be from actually not having any oil pressure? There is oil on the dipstick and if I open the oil cap, it looks like there is oil all over the cams? Am I panicking?

Ok, here is where I sit now. I did a search and found this thread and this other thread , and the drum they mention in there has no wire attached to it, nor do I see any wires hanging around. Started it again, still running bad, and some clacking noise coming from the valve cover area. What I really need to know is what happens if you really do lose your oil pressure? Is this something that could happen, or would it just lock up and die?

No oil pressure starts. Car will run rough. Car starts clattering. Car locks up.

Here's what we need to do. Get a camera, and take a picture of your oil filter housing from the driver side wheel well. We need to make sure your sending unit is in fact hooked up and operative.

If you've got 50 bucks to spend, go get a mechanical oil pressure gauge. Hook it up. Don't install the gauge in the cabin, just hook it up for temp. purposes.

You're sure the noise you heard wasn't the injectors pulsing or the pcv valve making noise?

Also, check your timing and make sure you've got all your belts.

Ok, few things:
First ddavisaf thank you very much for all your help, I really appreciate it.

Second, I just did a dry compression test, results were 160,158,155,140.

Third, here are some images:
drum thing
another picture of drum thing
spark plugs
closer up of plugs, middle one looks discolored
close up of a plug that has junk on threads another one with junk on threads

sorry these are all pretty bad quality, I'm not very good with the camera. Is that compression ok?

Autozone is closed, so I can't get a oil pressure guage at the moment.

That's why I'm here bud

Your compression is a little weird. Service limits are 121.

160,158,155,140.

You should be within 14ish psi of every other cylinder. So 140 is low, meaning you might have a bad headgasket on that cylinder or bad oil rings. Most likely oil rings. The discolored spark plug came out of that cylinder I'm guessing?

Your oil sending unit is definately not hooked up. So you'll need to find where that connector went. Refer to your previous post for picture on what it looks like (post by Defiant). Plug 'er back in and see if your light goes out and you register oil pressure again. It has to be down there somewhere.

You can hold off on the aftermarket gauge for the moment.

Next we need to figure out the noise you were hearing. Take off the vacuum hose that goes to your pcv valve and plug the valve with your finger and see if the noise goes away. This is done while the car is running. The pcv valve should make noise. There is a ball inside of it that allows crankcase pressure to be vented or sealed according to vacuum levels/boost. With that ruled out we get a little more nit-picky. Get a piece of hose, put one end to your ear, the other on the valve cover. Try and pinpoint the noise. Remember that your fuel injectors will tick and your cams will tick slightly as well. Especially if they're old.

Hopefully this will have the noise you're hearing figured out.

When you said you came out and it sounded like your car was running on 3 cylinders, did you notice a loss of power?
Did you have a CEL?
Were you running rich i.e. black smoke out of the exhaust, or a smell that burned your face/eyes/nose.

I'm going to have to stop working on it tonight, and work on it more tomorrow when I get home from work, but let me answer some of your questions:

There was definite power loss, but no smoke anywhere, cel did come on, but only while actually driving it. If I start it and let it run, the cel doesn't come on. The oil light has never come on, just the oil gauge was at the bottom. Where should that wire be coming from, I can't see one hanging anywhere? I will test this other stuff tomorrow afternoon, hopefully you will still be able to help me then. Thanks again.

PM me when you log on tomorrow and we'll pick this thread back up.

I forgot to mention that the discolored plug came out of a different cylinder, the number 2 cylinder with the 155 compression. Cylinder 1 is the one with 140.

Ok, good news! Finally found where that wire was hiding, and hooked it up. Then I put the plugs back in and started her up, pressure came up and sounded like all cylinders were firing. Took it off the jacks and went for a spin, everything seems fine! I'm thinking maybe the plugs are going bad? They are about a year old, so I think I'm just going to go ahead and replace them and the wires to be safe. Anyway, thanks everyone for your help! And if anyone thinks it wasn't the plugs and that there maybe something else wrong, please let me know what it might be.

Misfire could definately have been the plugs.
When you replace them make sure you replace them with bpr6es NGK. Otherwise you'll have problems. Unless of course you go with one range colder, bpr7es. Stock=6 Modified=7

When you did the compression test was you car at normal running temperature??? If you didn't that may be why you had such a strange result. Now that things seem back to normal do another compression test to make sure you don't have any problems with your head gasket or rings. That connector must be a common problem for quite a few dsmer's because of it's location and how low to the ground it is. Glad to see you got it figured out, now just make sure all systems are a go.

It had the same problem when I came back out later, I actually pulled the plug off of #4 cylinder and started it again, and it sounded the same. Put the plug back on, and it ran fine again. I'll just replace them this week. My car is stock, so the 6s should be fine right? Also, the car had been off for some time when I did the compression test (afraid to start it at the time), so I'll try again this weekend. Do you guys have a particular taste in plug wires? I've just been using Mitsu's. Thanks.

ngk bpr6es are the right plug for ya.
Your stock mitsu wires are fine.