Thread: Hot idle oil pressure

Originally Posted by Naks

Gents,

I hope I'm being paranoid...

Hot idle pressure in my Puma has always been 1.6, since new, no matter which map is running. Since a week or so, this has been 2.0, so I've been checking things, but all is normal - oil level is fine, looks ok, no leaks, etc.

Oil pressure when driving 100kmh @ 2000rpm on a flat road in 6th gear is between 5.5 and 6.0.

Landy is going in for an oil change in the next week, but should I be worried? Could this be related to the cold weather and fact that coolant temp is not reaching above 86C unlike the usual 91C?

Thanks!

Methinks cold running plus thick (old) oil would be the cause?

Originally Posted by n plus one

Methinks cold running plus thick (old) oil would be the cause?

Could be... by cold weather I mean it's around 8-9C when I leave home in the morning, 16-20C max at lunch time.

Oil change was done at the annual service at the beginning of February, going in for the mid-year oil change next week.

Hi all,

After an oil change, all appears to be back to normal: the hot idle oil pressure is now at around 1.7-1.8, but jumps around a lot, leading both the indie and myself to conclude that the earth on the Madman unit is probably loose.

Coolant temperature is back to normal at 91-93C and there has been no more coolant loss after replacing the cap (no streaks on the bottle either).

I have now switched from the stealer-mandated Castrol Magnatec Professional A5 to the Fuchs Titan Supersyn F (Fuchs TITAN Supersyn F 5w-30 engine oil - Ford WSS-M2C913-C - ACEA A5/B5).

After the first drive, the engine sounds a lot smoother, and feels a tad livelier. Schalk recommends another oil change in 2500km. Considering 8L of the Fuchs cost R536, this is not bad at all.

Happy week

The high oil pressure readings are back

Sometimes before even starting the landy, the unit displays 1.1bar. So I cannot trust it any more, getting it seen to asap.

Anyone else keeping readings of their oil pressures? Would appreciate a comparison.

My madman unit, installed for about 3 years now, gives spurious oil pressure readings. It was fine for a year or so but then went west. Will read over 1 bar with engine off. With engine running is temperamental / spurious more often than not but sometimes ok.

Your 6 bar when running at 100 kph does sound high to me though. When my unit was working and trustworthy, I remember between 4 (when cold) down to 2.3 when all warmed up was normal. Warm and idle about 1. I have a Td5 though so possibly not a very good comparison.

I tried a few things, mainly trying to get a better earth but, short of getting a new pressure sender, to sort the reliability of the oil pressure out but to no avail, don't know what to suggest. All the other readings from the EMS are good though.

Ian.

Originally Posted by mools

I tried a few things, mainly trying to get a better earth but, short of getting a new pressure sender, to sort the reliability of the oil pressure out but to no avail, don't know what to suggest. All the other readings from the EMS are good though.

Yeah, that's what the installer said as well: if the earth was the problem, all the readings would be weird.

The original unit's pressure sender lasted for 3 years without any issues. Then started acting up in February. The replacement is acting up - but I was told these pressure senders are fairly robust, so not sure what is going on.

I'm going to see the installer next week, he will check all the wiring, earth, etc., and we will also compare the EMS readings with actual oil pressure readings.

I'll keep you posted.

I'll be interested to hear what comes of this.

I ran an individual earth from the oil pressure sender back to the same point as the earth from EMS unit, just in case. That seemed to sort the issue out for a while but the problem then returned.

I also used to have a similar reliability issue with the coolant temp sender, it would be a bit tempremental and not agree with the nanocom reading but running a dedicated earth lead back to the main unit earth point sorted that out - I put that down to a poor connection between the sender and the block due to thread lock being used.

I kinda gave up caring about the oil pressure, I figure you either have some or don't. Highly unlikely it has ever been the 10 bar it sometimes tell me it is, at that kind of pressure there would be some serious repercussion somewhere.

Ian.

Originally Posted by mools

I kinda gave up caring about the oil pressure, I figure you either have some or don't. Highly unlikely it has ever been the 10 bar it sometimes tell me it is, at that kind of pressure there would be some serious repercussion somewhere.

Yeah, I'm also not too worried about high pressure. But I am VERY worried about low oil pressure - this may save your engine going bang if the oil is spewing out!