Oil pressure gauge question

[fordguy1842]

I have a 1992 explorer with 52xxx miles and my oil pressure gauge seem to fluctuate a lot, it stays in the normal range but is alway moving back and forth from day to day. Is this normal behavior?

 

[Wolfie_85]

Could be your oil pressure sending unit, the gauge itself, the oil pump, or driving conditions. It's hard to say without more knowledge of the conditions surrounding your issue. Warm? Cold? Idle or driving? It is normal for oil pressure to change when you are accelerating, it will be lower at idle. But not by any drastic amount. If you are getting too low on oil pressure, it's probably not a good idea to drive it until you iron out the issue, or things could get expensive. Fast.

I had the pressure sending unit go out on one of my cars. It was fine until it warmed up, then read low. Like, in the red low. It turned out not to be major, but I didn't want to risk the engine.

 

[murkinstock]

The oil pressure gauge in these is just a fancy looking idiot light. If it's above 5 psi then it will read somewhere in the normal range. If it's under 5 psi it will be in the red. Mine jumps around a bit but it always stays in like the middle area for the most part. Most likely your engine is fine. Get a new oil pressure sending unit and that should help it. It could also be clogged with sludge.

You could also put a real oil pressure gauge on it temporarily just to make sure it's at a good pressure.
I plan on getting some sort of T-connector for mine so I can have my real one and my idiot one. Lol

 

[Maniak]

Here is the thread with the how to and more information that you probably want about converting/making the analog idiot light version of the oil pressure into a real pressure gauge (moves with pressure)..

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=14894

~Mark

 

[jd4242]

I have found alot of crude seems to like to build up in the metal nipple the sensor attaches to..I say pull the sensor, the pull the metal fitting off the motor and clean it.bet it has crude in it.good time to replace the sensor also..

But personally I prefer a real oil pressure gauge