A (probably stupid) question about oil pressure.

[Mr. Guy]

Hey guys.

I just swapped the Standard gauge cluster for a Premium one from the same year car ('90). Everything appears to be working right (I find my 2.5 idles at 1k RPM instead of 700-800 like I expected? Normal?) except that the oil pressure guage maxes out at 80PSI instead of going down where it's supposed to be, which according to my book is 20s and 30s depending on RPMs.

Sooo my stupid question of the day is...how do I remedy this? I assume that these clusters are only normally used in manual-equipped cars, do they use a different type of sending unit than the auto does (on/off vs variable sending or somesuch)?

[grfnkl]

Originally Posted by Mr. Guy

Hey guys.

I just swapped the Standard gauge cluster for a Premium one from the same year car ('90). Everything appears to be working right (I find my 2.5 idles at 1k RPM instead of 700-800 like I expected? Normal?) except that the oil pressure guage maxes out at 80PSI instead of going down where it's supposed to be, which according to my book is 20s and 30s depending on RPMs.

Sooo my stupid question of the day is...how do I remedy this? I assume that these clusters are only normally used in manual-equipped cars, do they use a different type of sending unit than the auto does (on/off vs variable sending or somesuch)?

These gauges are used in automatics as well as the manual's, so there should be no difference in that regards. it's possible that the Oil pressure sending unit isn't working right causing a high pressure reading. The pressure itself maybe correct though. The idle, sounds a little high, but not that bad. I think mine idles around 850-900 ( or so i was told)

[skibum1111]

You need to change your oil pressure sending unit. The standard cluster only has a light, the upgrade has a gauge. The light runs on a switch, trips at 5ish psi. When the switch isn't tripped, it will max out the gauge.

[Mr. Guy]

Hmm, guess I'd better add a new sender to the shopping list. Couldn't hurt, bet the original's still in the engine. Alright then, thanks a lot to both of you

On a side note, the new cluster looks very nice, has the same red backlighting as the standard and lots of nifty dials to tell you what's about to blow up. Much more informitive than the standard one, definately a recommended swap and all that. Easy too, bless the plug-and-play system~