[harkauto]

I'm wondering about my oil pressure gauge on my 2001 Dakota with a 4.7 engine. The gauge on my truck simply has a low and a high side with a hash mark on each side indicating the normal range.

When the truck reaches normal operating temperature the red needle always stays within the normal operating range. When I decelerate and slow for a stop sign the needle slowly moves down to and touches the normal range hash mark on the Low pressure side but never goes below the normal mark.

Then when I accelerate back up to traveling speed the needle then slowly rises up to and just touches the hash mark on the high side but again it never goes beyond the normal range.

The needle has this constant wide swing back and forth between low and high all the time I am driving but the needle never transgresses outside of the normal range and I'm wondering if this is normal, or do I possibly have a wonky oil pressure sending unit.

My friend has a GMC pick up and he has a similar oil gauge and the needle on his truck stands straight up in the normal range and never seems to move even slightly to the left or the right all the time his truck is running.

I'm wondering if this is the normal function for the 2001 Dakota oil pressure gauge.

Thanks!

Harkauto