Nice to be here, I have a 2001 Dodge Ram 5.2l that is experiencing oil pressure issues. My own fault with lengthy oil changes, I know, school of hard...dumb knox, ha, ha.

I had the oil pump replaced and they said there was a lot of sludge. Long story short, new oil pump, oil pan cleaned along with screen tube replaced. 5 months later, truck sat for three months with two week starting intervals. After driving truck for first time in 3 months the oil gauge dropped to zero and then would go back up to normal pressure. Here is the dinger, the oil pressure gauge drops to zero intermittently, however when I place the truck in neutral after the gauge drops to zero it goes back up to normal pressure. So I get to drive around town switching from drive to neautral, only when the pressure drops though.

I am going to replace the sending unit next as this seems to be many others problem as well. If that doesnt fix the problem I will then remove the oil pan and look for a clogged screen and sludge evidence.

My wife had to use the truck today and drove about 10 miles round trip and the oil pressure didn't drop once, what's going on with this ghost?

Can anyone give me any insight on this issue? Thanks in advance for any help.

PS I have the 2001 Dodge ram manual in PDF format if anyone needs it. Email me and I will email you the file.

I apologize in advance if this is the incorrect section, I am still trying to find my way around! Please moderate if required.

 

Moving this for ya.

 

Manual is already available online here. But, thank you.

If your truck is going to sit for any length of time, you are better off dumping some oil into the cylinders, and leaving it at that. 80-90% of all engine wear occurs at start up.......

That said, sending unit is a good bet. I would be real tempted to verify that though, with a mechanical gauge. Drive around with that for a bit, and see what it has to say.

 

+1 mechanical gauge.

my bet is the oil pressure is dropping as the oil heats up and loses viscosity. pressure rises in neutral and park because RPM's rise just enough to surpass the set value.

 

I am having the same issue and need to fix mine in the next two weeks due to taking the truck to PA. Mines a 1997 Ram 1500 5.2L 197K miles. It runs great till the oil heats up then the pressure starts acting up, when the pressure starts acting up the motor gets louder but no loss of power. I don't need to blow the motor in the WV mountains.

 

Same advice to you then. Put a mechanical gauge on it, so you can see what's REALLY going on. The electric gauge is driven by the PCM, and the PCM seems to have some really strange programming for it, and the lite......

 

i had the same issue, i installed a new sending unit didnt do nothin, so i changed the pump,pickup/screen, and same thing... so then i put a mechanical gauge on it and got some true numbers, found out on here that factory min. spec is 7psi at a warm idle. mine is gettin like 10-15psi at a completely warm 180degree idle. but yes i think its the pcm thats causing it, cause my gas gauge also still kinda acts up a little. so its either the cluster, or the pcm.

not sure if gettin a programmer for the pcm would cure it or not.

 

A mechanic friend of mine checked it out yesterday, he said since I did not know what oil was in it (it had just had an oil change when I bought it 3 months ago) and because of the age, to flush it then put a good grade high mileage oil in it. The pressure reading was like you said between 10-15 psi and it was probably the PCM setting causing the issue. He also said in these trucks to make sure the oil is changed every 3000 miles because the oil breaks down in them quickly due to high operating temps.

 

Had the same problem, new oil pump and a clean pan/pickup screen fixed it.