the oil pressure guage on my 60k T.T AUTO

runs very low 0.5kg (jap import) yet seems normal when cold about 7kg

oil has been changed, level is fine, car runs sweet, no knocking tapping anything.

does not smoke, leak any oil.....

anybody know what pressure should be ?

could it be a faulty sender ?

any simple way of checking pressure as im no

mechanic...

 

There's no simple way to check the oil pressure I'm afraid, bar tapping into an oil line and fitting a test guage (or using the stock pressure sender location)

 

How long ago did you change the oil? And what oil are you running? Some thin oils will show very low pressure at idle..

 

The stock senders are known to go bad over time - easy to change, drain oil, remove oil filter, and it's staring you in the face, simply unscrew and renew..

 

Having said all that, i can't remember what 'normal' was on my Jap car... D'oh!

hi aaron.

oil changed 50 miles ago, for semi synthetic to see if this helped, the onlyother thing i thought might be a cause , was that the whole instrument cluster was swopped

over (problems with the speedo ),when i purchased the car,ive only had it for 6 weeks

but i will try what you suggested....

its quite unnerving looking at a needle barely over zero at 30mph, yet the engine

is quiet and smooth.....thanks for the tip !

The Nissan sender is crap. Mine had a new one about 20k ago and it reads about 15psi hot idle and 30 hot 2000rpm. So I think its gone again. Manages 40-50ish 3000rpm motorway. Goes sky high when cold and I'm running Castrol RS synthetic 0-40. Nissan want about £80 I think for a new sender.

 

Have a look inside your cam cover thru the filling cap when she's idling. Shine a torch you should see loads of oil flooding over the cam lobe. If she looks dryish then might be cause for concern but since you say no tapping or knocks it is 95% sure a duff sender- they're all duff!

Willie

The other thing to remember is that Nissan oil pumps are the type that only generate a realtively low pressure at idle, with the pressure rising as the revs do (Renaults are the same, I believe Ford use a constant pressure type pump)..

 

When it turns up (sigh) I'll be replacing my factory guage sender with an SPA sender, matched to an SPA digital oil pressure/temperature guage - making the stock (and terrible) guage redundant (and dead)..

I'll also have to drop the oil pan at some point so I can drill & tap it for the temperature sender.

Hmmm, I like that idea. How much ?

List on the SPA guage is £133.69, comes in white or black face, selectable red/green backlight - that includes the senders..

 

The only ones that are more than that are Fuel pressure(&oil pressure), Boost(&oil pressure), and Boost(&fuel pressure).

 

Oh or if you need a Thermocouple adaptor & K type probe to turn one of the temp guages into an EGT guage..

http://www.spa-uk.co.uk/design/instru6.htm

Having dismantled a faulty sender unit and played around with it the conclusion I came up with is its a bit of S??t The two rubbing strips that move up and down the variable resister are made of such thin metal they wear out,also noted that no attempt had been made to use any contact lubrication which most likely would prevent them going bad.

Interestingly aaronjb, Spa design is about 5 mins from where I live they also produce Penski shocks for the US indy cars and suspension parts for F1 teams.They are housed in a disused church!! I approached them some years ago to beg or borrow a turbo gauge for my then Sierra Cosworth but they wanted big bucks as it was just in production.If memory serves me correct they have produed a single gauge which can read any scale temp or pressure, is self calibrating and can have multi sensors fitted so as to switch between readouts.Can pop in and ask em about your gauge if u want?

 

Jeff TT

Jeff - thanks for the offer.. I'm currently waiting on delivery of the oil pressure & temp guage, apparently they have no stock, and production is maxed out..

 

But yeah you're right - it's basically a factory calibrated unit (to read whatever sender it's sold for), with a different face.. It does have nice features though - peak hold & recall, and an output line with programmable trigger point (could be used to trigger water injection on the boost guage, for example), Hi/Lo warning lights.. very slick..

 

I had the Boost/Temp guage on my R5 until someone 'borrowed' it, never to be seen again.. Should be being replaced by them shortly though (even if I have to break arms to get it!)..

 

Future plans are for a Fuel pressure&volts meter, and if I can concoct one, an EGT&ATF temp guage..

 

And I think that'll be me all guaged out!

 

Actually - one question, you dont happen to know the thread on the standard oil pressure sender do you? I think the SPA one is 1/8 BSP, I bet the Nissan one is metric..

 

[This message has been edited by aaronjb (edited 09-01-2002).]

thanks people

cheers for the tip will......

thank god for that.....ill check it out at the weekend...with the torch and cam lobes.

 

anyone know a good garage/service centre

who know their stuff...and understand that it

might be a 300zx...but does not mean the owner is loaded, in the basingstoke area ?

or nearby ?

 

laters

carl

Let any garage think that you've no oil pressure and they'll be saying "gona cost you a packet to fix mate!" They wont have heard of Z oil press senders unless they do Zs regularly

 

Just remember that the cam lobes are about the last place in the oil feed circuit to see the oil so if the oil is there on the cam then its probably healthy. Just be sure! A truly oil starved engine will not last minutes on the road at speed.

 

On high mileage Z's (60k is nowt) you can get some overnight leak down of the oil in the hydraulic cam followers. Its possibly worse when the oil level is low in the sump. Result is a rattle or tapping immediately on starting but it goes in a couple of seconds as the oil refills the hydraulic cam followers under pressure. Also as Aaron says the pump is designed for max flow not max pressure, especially under idling.

Hi, new to the site all very interesting, try MJP (Eastern Auto ) Brentwood, he sent new sender unit and my oil PX returned to normal. TEL 01277 374201

Dave,

How much was a new sender from MJP ? I recollect paying about £50 from Nissan.

thanks will/dave

checked the lobes through the oil cap

today....and happy to say were swimming

in oil....yet the gauge was on zero..

i kid you not....had dropped down from 7kg

after about 5 minutes....

looks like my sender is complete waste of time.......dave i will try that no...

appreciate it mate...

 

carl

Oil Presure Sender: £86 (incl. of VAT) from Nelson direct - this was the price three or four weeks ago. It seems a lot of money for something so small and obviously crap I have seen examples of replacement senders from Nissan going bad after two months ...

 

Cheers,

 

Danny