Cold starting check guage and no oil pressure ?

[mpauley]

I have just purchased this truck and never test drove it cold.
Now, 1st thing in the morning, the check guage light is on and the oil pressure is L.
The oil level is fine and the oil clean.
Last change about 3.5K ago.
After about 1 minute the oil pressure springs to Normal and works fine for the remainder of the day.
Any ideas, sensor, pump, filter ???
Thanks.

 

[TeamXPLO]

Mine does the exact same on a cold start... Any info on this phenomenon would be very appreciated.

-lloyd

 

[mpauley]

The prior owner said that Ford said that as long it came normal after a minute or two, not to worry. Hmmm.

My mechanic said that, as this model has hydraulic lifters, all would be very noisy on startup if there was no actual pressure. I am having him check things on Wednesday. Actualy as the engine reads SOHC, I thought would mean the valves were driven by the cam and not lifters, but what do I know. Will be back after that.

 

[SWLathrop]

I have a 97 Sport with the 4.0 SOHC. I had to replace the oil pressure sending unit last fall. After replacing the sending unit, I noticed that my oil pressure guage would take 10-30 seconds before it would register oil pressure. I thought this was weird as I run AMSOIL SERIES 2000 0W-30 in the SOHC. The guage used to produce instant presssure reading before the original sending unit died. I took the new one back and got another one (both from FORD). Guess what? Yep, same thing, but now it's a 10-15 second delay before pressure guage reading. But, no problems for the past 8 months. Could just be the FORD sending units have a slightly heavier spring load than previous models. Depends on FORDs supplier build specs. Just a thought.

 

[mpauley]

sensor fixes oil pressure guage

Good news. My mechanic was able to catch the "cold" problem and verify that although the guage read zero, pressure was fine. A new sensor/switch @ $10 part and $50 labor and the problem is solved.

 

[TPLYNCH]

Re: sensor fixes oil pressure guage

Originally posted by mpauley
A new sensor/switch @ $10 part and $50 labor and the problem is solved.

Shouldn't that have been covered by the warranty? or are you over 36K already?

 

[mpauley]

Out of warranty, not used and lost

41K and 5K too late.
Probably why Ford (to paraprase the prior owner) said "the part was not an issue as long as the guage came on after 1 or 2 minutes".
I wish she had been more pushy, but as the truck is in great shape I cant and wont grumble.

 

[preyhunter]

I posted this on another site, but thought I'd copy it here so that it could possibly help some of you out as well. The 2001 Trac has a TSB out for this problem, though I decided to do it on my own even though I'm still under factory warranty. Cost of the part and my labor is much less than the time I would have to take off of work, sitting around waiting for the job to be done, or having to rent a car. Keep in mind, this was done on a SOHC Trac, so the location may be different from you, as well as the descriptions of other part locations...

The oil pressure switch screws into the engine block on the driver's side toward the front. If you look at the engine from the front of the vehicle, it is behind and to the right of the power steering pump. If you look at the engine from the driver's side of the vehicle, it is beneath the A/C compressor. It is quite a pain to get to. I chose to get to it from the top, putting my arm into the area between the oil dipstick and the electrical harness to the left of the dipstick near the A/C compressor. It scraped my arm up a little bit, but I was done in 20 minutes. The amount of time I was able to complete it in was worth the scrapes. Gauge works like a dream now.

The replacement oil pressure switch looked a hair different than the one I removed. Hopefully this means that the one I put in is the upgraded part. The replacement was an original Motorcraft part bought at O'Reilly Auto Parts for $5.26 plus tax.

Oh yeah, anyone else that decides to do this may want to remember that the best time to do this is during an oil change, specifically while all of the oil is drained out of the engine (duh). I wasn't thinking about it when I started (oil pressure switch=place where oil resides) and some of it ran out and onto the garage floor. It doesn't leak a lot of oil, so you could do it before draining the oil if you really wanted to. I checked the oil level after finishing and it didn't look to be any different than normal.

I was able to complete this using just a 13/16" spark plug socket and a 3/8" drive ratchet.

 

[addkev]

Thanks for the fix, I will try mine this weekend.

 

[mpauley]

TSB ?

What is a TSB ?
Are they akin to recalls that can be tracked someplace ?

 

[TPLYNCH]

Technical Service Bulletin - A memo Ford sends to Service Dept. describing common or recurring problems, and if a fix is found, how to fix. IT IS NOT A RECALL. Just an informational bulletin. TSB's and Recall notice summaries can be found at http://www.ford-trucks.com/recalls.html and the full reports can be had from Alldata for ~$25 I believe.