a week or two ago, i noticed my low oil light came on. i pulled over, checked out the oil level and topped it back off. days later, it came on again, but with it, came odd oil pressure. it started going much higher than the middle mark on the gauge when i hit the gas (when it used to just go up halfway). it's now getting a little quirky and waiting a second longer or so than usual to register oil pressure. the oil is still going down.

i called a shop, assuming it might be a bad oil pump, and he told me i might need a new oil pressure sending unit. does this sound right? i would really like to get my car back to running order and avoid any possible damage to my engine before it happens. thanks!

 

bump

 

Although this probably isn't my place to say, but I see that no one else has so here goes. I have a V6 (obviously from the sig) and noticed that at startup, the pressure just kinda stays at midrange (40psi if I am not mistaken). After it gets up to 160-180 degrees, the pressure drops down to the red, to what I estimate to read as about 5 psi. Now, if you are all aghast that I let that happen, let me explain. I went to a Chevy dealer and asked one of the mechanics about it. He said his girlfriend has a 95 V6 (shut up) and it gets screwy readings for oil pressure too. He said its probably just the sending unit not working properly. Mine has been doing this for almost three years now, so I don't really believe the oil pressure gauge. So, I would say just get a pressure sending unit first as it seems to be a common problem with the Chevys, although in my experience it was only the V6s.

-Eric

 

Replace your oil pressure sensor to start with.

EKO, why in the world would you not replace your oil pressure sensor?

 

EKO, did you have a problem with the "low oil" light coming on, like mine?

 

No, no problem with the low oil light. As for not replacing the sensor, I only plan on running this engine another week or so, then swapping in an LT-1. I agree I should have though.

 

I took it by a local shop a few days ago. They found a problem in the intake manifold. Apparently, there's a TSB on intake manifold gaskets going bad (at least on my year of Z) and it's sucking oil back into the intake and burning it up. I'm getting that fixed this week for $360. It makes pretty good sense of why I'm losing some oil with no obvious leaks.

 

Damn, fix that yourself and save a ton of money!

 

...and it's not likely to cure your oil pressure problem either. Unless you are leaking oil from the back of the manifold, don't have them do anything to it. It would be waste of money.