Okay, today I was just driving down the road and noticed my oil pressure gauge suddenly drop to 0. It moves back up as I accelerate, but goes backdown to 0 once I am driving steady speeds. In park, when I press the accelerator, it will move back up to center until I release the pedal. What is going on?



1997 Ram SLT 1500 Club-Cab
4x4, 5.9L, LT285-75-16 Michelin's

 

most likely your sensor is going bad and not measuring low oil pressures acurately. swap it out 1st, it's back by the distributor and you'll need the sensor tool to get it out. If you lost pressure, you'd have a very noisy motor by now...

 

Glad my motor still sounds great...what sensor tool will I need?







1997 Ram 1500 SLT Club-Cab
4x4, 5.9L, LT285-75-16 Michelin's

 

it is specific for the larger sensors and can be found at most autoparts stores, it is a big socket that has room for the connector to fit... otherwise a standard deep socket is too narrow on top for the electrical connector to fit. I think that they are something like $10 bux max, it's been a while but I had the exact same failure you did in my 318 Jeep GC. The sensor was leaking past to the wiring harness. if yours is this bad, make sure you clean the wiring.

 

Okay, thanks. I'll post back once I've checked it out.






1997 Ram 1500 SLT Club-Cab
4x4, 5.9L, LT285-75-16 Michelin's

 

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My '98 5.9's guage is acting funny too. Key off, guage is pegged below 0. Turn on ignition, the needle moves up to 0. Start it up, and the needle moves up to just past the first white line (in between 0 and 40). Then it just sits there. Doesn't increase with the rpms or anything. Only 52K miles. Could the sender also be going south?

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no, that sounds normal... if the motors on and your guage is doing funny things, then yeah... maybe the sensor is bad. you just need to make sure it's in the sensor/guage and not the pump. if your still driving it, then it'd have to be the sensor

 

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Steve - You replying to mine or DCRam's?

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yours... your sensor sounds ok, when you turn the key on, there is no pressure and it should be at 0 psi, when the motor is turned on, it should be at 35psi or greater, mine fluctuates sp? from 35 up to about 50 psi depending on engine speed. remember that the sensor is at the top of the motor so it will take a second or two to get pressure up to the sensor when the motor is 1st started.