My '02 Ram has this issue where the check gauge light will sound come on and the oil pressure needle will go down to nothing, then go right back up. The idiot light goes out and everything is good. It usually happens at stops and slow turns. There seem to be no other issues. The oil is full and fresh. It seemed random at first but seems to be increasing. Before I start yanking things out looking for a loose connection, I was wondering if anyone else had any experience with this?

 

Sounds exactly like a loose connection to me, especially when you say it usually happens at stops and turns. Could be that inertia is moving the connector and causing it to lose connection. Either that or a short that only occurs when the harness/connector moves. Time to check the wiring/connectors IMO....

Edit: Oh, and welcome to the forum!

 

sounds like you need a hughes kit, more than likely the plenum cover gasket is going bad. It causes the oil to pool in the intake manifold and causes sudden loss of oil pressure when decelerating. its a common problem with most 5.9L, and 5.2L motors especially between 96 and 03. if this is the case it will get worse and you will start consuming about 2qts a month. you can tell if its pooling by looking for a quick puff of smoke coming from your exaughst when you start your truck up. it will rob you of gas mileage and eventually internal damage and will burn up o2 sensors in a matter of months if uncorrected. It can be fixed by installing a hughes plenum kit which is about 85-90bucks. Its not a hard fix but time consuming as you have to remove your intake manifold. I would be willing to bet money this is your issue, it happens to almost every 3.9L, 5.2L, and 5.9L from that time period. check out this link:

http://www.hughesengines.com/Index/p...p?partid=22220

 

Good info, but I would think that if he had a leaking plenum, he would notice it running rough and it should almost die out before the oil pressure would drop to zero and then surge again as the pressure came back up.

 

I used aps precision I thinks it was when I did my plenum when I had. 99 5.2 I thought it was a better price with all the bolts and gaskets you need along with a nice pc of aluminum for the belly pan real, good product alot of the guys in the 2 nd gen section

 

it wont run rough or die out, mine did it for a while before i fixed it, when the pressure dropped the truck ran no differetly, no rpm drop or anything. Its a slow pooling rather than a flooding into the manifold. I would be willing to bet money the plenum seal is the issue.

 

Weed described the problem and the solution to the oil consumption (and O2 sensor) issues my '99 3500 Ram Van was having.

 

a bad plenum seal will definitely cause malfuntions with your o2 sensor

 

Exact same thing is happening to my truck , exactly. Replaced oil pump ( that was a pretty big job) and same thing checked it on a manual guage and it reads 15-16 psi on idle after 20 minutes warm so it has oil pressure . when first firing it up it is reading at lik 50 psi . I am guessing that there is some sludge blockage perhaps and that when it bypasses the pressure drops but when it drops the pressure is still acceptable just not to the guage for some reason. Flushed engine , pan looked pretty clean when we dropped it but there was alot of carbon in the screen . Only thing I can figure is to keep oil changes more frequently and keep flushing to hopefully flush it all out the top end. My friend was saying you could flush with kerosene to demolish all the carbon . Engine sounds fine otherwise..... hmmm......?????

 

Funny..... I had a conversation with the father of one of our site mods who happened to live in Maine also a few months back. He also has an '02 1500 with the 5.9 V8 in it. Told that guy then he needed a Hughes kit to fix the plenum. I'm sure he's fixed it by now though...

Small world...