Oil pressure fluctuating ; engine light on

[RAL1022]

98 XLT, 2WD, Automatic, 4.0 OHV . I thought I'd share what happened to me. On the last 50 mile leg of a 130 mile trip, oil gauge needle went beserk, jumping all over the place. Check engine light came on. I pulled over. Motor was making clicking and tapping noises. After 10 minutes, drove another 10 miles gauge started jumping again. Engine off for 10 min, drove another 10 miles, same thing, repeated all the way home. Feared worst, oil pump, at $1000 parts and labor. Also, a noise was coming from oil pan next morning. Here's the good part. I changed the oil, all is well. Co-worker told me tired oil does strange things. I did have 9000 miles on 5w-30 oil, my bad.

 

[Sams01XplrSprt]

welcome

 

[Cobraguy]

9000 mile oil isn't the cause of this. Not even close. What is more than likely the cause is the thing was out of oil. (well, very low on oil) The oil pressure gauge on these is nothing more than an on/off switch set to some ridiculous low pressure. I'm just about certain you were low on oil, aerating the pump, and getting momentary pressure hits to shuttle the gauge on and off. The reason it went away momentarily after you stopped was you allowed what oil was in the engine to drain back to the pan. You will be very lucky if you haven't done serious damage. JMO.....