Hi, I’m here.
I’m gonna go a different way here.
The oil pressure sensor is electrical, and I am going to go with a combo of a bad connection, and a low idle speed causing the appearance of low oil pressure.
Most likely everything in the engine room is fine, but there is a temperature related poor connection in the gauge circuit.
Hi, Rick.
So I took the Jeep out after sundown today. Temperature 15º (though it did warm up to 16º.) Thirty seconds to get pressure. I took off very slowly down the street. In half a block the needle dropped and the Check Gauges annunciator lit. I turned around and parked it, and let it idle. Pressure was reading about 15 psi. There were no scary sounds coming from the engine bay, so I sat there while the temperature gauge slowly climbed to about 180º. As the engine warmed up the oil pressure indicated higher. When it got to 40 psi I took off again and pressure increased to its normal 45-50 psi.
I’m thinking I should take the car in to have some winter-weight oil put in. Looks like it’s going to be cold this year, and winter hasn’t started yet. (OTOH, it’s supposed to get above freezing next week.)
I hadn’t heard of a temperature-related bad circuit. How does that work?
Things shrink when it gets cold. Rick may have the details for Jeeps, though a bad connection might increase the resistance enough to cause a low pressure reading.
FWIW, I used to have a Ford Courier (I’m sorry too) whose dash gauges never worked right in winter until the engine had warmed up or until it warmed up a little and I banged on the dash. The truck was twenty years old when I got it, and I never got all of the pins tightened properly in the main dash connector.
cornflakes nailed it. Things shrink when the get cold. If you have an electrical connector that is not good and tight when warm, when it gets cold it can become loose and create extra resistance.
Also based on your last post, do an oil change. It is possible that the oil in the crankcase is too heavy for the pump to suck up when cold. Put the proper weight winter oil in the crankcase, and I think you will see an improvement in your oil pressure.
That’s what I told her down at the nude beach! The water was very cold. She was all like, :dubious:
Another possibility is that the oil pressure relief valve is sticking. An oil change might help that.
OK. Oil change (5W30), oil filter, lube, coolant exchange (antifreeze). Fingers crossed.