Oil Pressure Blues

[weiner]

My 1998 Buick PA has been running fine and has about 90000 mles about one month ago I had to have the mainfold gasket replaced as it blew and sucked all my coolent into the engine. Fixed by dealer and all was good. Yesterday, my oil pressure began to peg at 129 then drop to 0 on acceleration. I got it home nad shut it down as not to cause any damage. There were no knocks in the engine or overheating so I am not sure if it is the oil sending unit or if it may be a major problem. The sending unit was replaced by the same dealer about six months ago. Any help would be much welcomed. Thanks in advance.

[yogi_123rd]

When gauges max or min out, it's usually electrical or the sending unit is the problem. I suspect the problem is just the gauge or sending unit.

If the oil pump went, you would first hear the valves making a lot of noise from lack of oil. (Not to mention the bang of the oil pump going). If the oil pump was dying, you would see the oil pressure gradually drop as the oil heated.

Try to deturmine if oil is reaching the valves. Open the oil filler and see if oil is splashing around or excessive noise from the rocker arm. If there's oil, your pumps fine.

[weiner]

Thanks Yogi, I will try the sending unit. Do you know where it is located on the PA? Thanks

[yogi_123rd]

Not exactly sure, but it should be in the immediate area of the oil filter.

[joe n suzanne]

We had the same problem on our 98 PA. Ours would stay at 129psi on the digital readout gauge. I changed the oil pressure sending unit and now it works fine.
It is located right next to the oil filter. For easy access to it the car should be lifted on a vehicle hoist where you can get to it real easy.

Ours was also leaking oil also, so I took care of 2 problems by changing it out. Once in the air, it took about 10 minutes to complete the job. Hope this helps out.
Joe

[bks81]

Before you buy and replace the oil pres sending unit, do a simple test. Get an extra person to help, jack the car up, somebody crawl under the car, locate the sending unit and its wires. Then have the other person get in the car, start it, get the display where it shows the oil pressure, the the one under the car slowly starts moving the wires that go to the oil pres sending unit around while the one in the car watches the readout. if the readout doesnt change, then replace the sending unit. If it does change, then you need to replace the wires/connector going to the sending unit. I had to do the latter on my 2000, you can search the archives for more all the info by searching for erractic oil pressure I believe. hope this helps.

BKS81

[bks81]

This is the link to the previous post that I wrote about oil pressure problems.

http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbul...t=oil+pressure

[weiner]

Thanks to everyone for all the good info. I will check this out and post what I find. You guys are the best.

[weiner]

It ended up being the sending unit and frayed connections to the sending unit. Thanks for all your help.