oil pressure....

[mikeresin]

ok... i went to my friends cabin in the mountains this weekend and on the drive up there i was going up a steep hill and my check engine light came on. i wasnt to worried about it becuase anytime i drive for over 3 hours straight my check engine light comes on. so i checked my guages just to make sure i wasnt overheating and noticed my oil pressure was all the way on H. now i know its bad if you have low oil pressure but what happens when its too high?
the next day my check engine light didnt come back on and it still hasnt. but my oil pressure is still way up.

i also checked my oil while i was up there and i was low a quart. so i know i have a fairlt decent size oil leak becuase i got an oil change 3 weeks ago.

and ideas?
its a 4.0 with 130k miles by the way.
thanks guys

 

[flyguy]

I dunno on that one. I do know that the oil gauge sucks. Its got like 3 settings low normal and high.. no in between. (although Ive never seen high). I would be pretty concerned why your getting a check engine every 3 hours. Have you tried pulling codes with a code reader? Thats a place to start at least.

nick

 

[flyguy]

I dont know if this is it.. but my chiltons mentions high pressure readings being caused by a too high of an oil viscosity or a faulty pressure relief valve... and I think that is located on the oil pump... I assume its not the one on the manifold.

 

[Texan01]

Oil pressure is like horsepower, you can never have too much.

My Pontiac 6000 2.8 V-6, when I rebuilt the engine I put a high volume pump in it because of the weakness in the GM v-6-60 engines (eats #4 rod bearings at sustained high rpm, I munched mine at 4500rpm red is 6,000) it would hammer out 80+psi (gauge only read to 80) and I never had a problem with oil leaks in the 40,000 miles I put on that thing. now it would vary from as low as 20 to peg-the-gauge.

About the only thing it'll do is wear the distributor gear faster from the load on it and take a few HP to turn. I figure that's a small price to pay $20 for a new gear or go through another $500 to rebuild another engine.

I'd be more concerned about the CE light myself.

 

[SteveVB]

Run the codes for the CEL, and check or have your mechanic check the oil pressure with a real gauge to see if you actually have high oil pressure. Could be the sender for the gauge.

Good Luck

 

[mikeresin]

yeh i need to take it in. thanks for the help guys

 

[flyguy]

Oh yeah.. didnt think about the gauge. would be easier to tell if we had working oil gauges. They should have just painted it on instead of spending the extra few bucks on needles n stuff.

Hey, if youve got time, get a code reader though... alot of times, when you have a CEL and nothing seems wrong..its just a malfunctioning sensor... that would cost you a few bucks to replace. Instead of being gouged at the dealer or whatever.

 

[tuby]

The CEL was coming on on my explorer, under hard driving conditions. Had the codes checked it was a bad O2 sensor

 

[flyguy]

damn those 02's. Dont trust em. They will turn on ya.

 

[earli]

My CEL was coming on after highway driving. As soon as I slowed for the offramp, it came on. Turned out to be a bad/leaky EGR hose.

As for the oil pressure, I notice my pressure goes up some when I'm getting close to an oil change. In my opinion, the oil filter is too small for our engine. Prob not your issue though since you just had yours changed. Could be blocked oil paths through the engine. But again, the guage is crap so have it checked out.

 

[Lemondrop]

Too much oil pressure can be a bad thing . If it gets too high it can wash out your engine bearings . Imagine running a water hose on a pile of dog poop . Sure sooner or later it will get mushy , but work with me Im using the poop for demo purposes . Water washing across it dosent hurt it . Turn on a high pressure (pressure washer) hose on it and you have a cut turd .
Oil can do the same thing to a bearing , if the pressure gets too high it can "cut" the soft metals out of your bearings . Also high oil pressure can burst your oil filter and or lines / sending units that can't handle the spike .
I doubt it is going that high , more like Id bet the gauge sending unit is toast . I think the light he might be talking about isnt a CEL , but the little red "Check Gauge" light that comes on when I run my truck out of gas

 

[flyguy]

For a better demonstration, try putting poop in your oil.

 

[leenjen]

Originally posted by flyguy
Oh yeah.. didnt think about the gauge. would be easier to tell if we had working oil gauges. They should have just painted it on instead of spending the extra few bucks on needles n stuff.

that's what i was thinking. why even bother putting a fake guage? maybe they could've put something else there that might actually be useful (or at least look cool).

 

[flyguy]

I want a Turbo Boost light like K.I.T.T. had!

 

[mikeresin]

no its the CEL not the check guage.
it sounds like it might be an o2 sensor. i still havnt takein it in yet. ive been too busy. hopefully tomorrow or saturday i will.