So I took a trip up to my camp this weekend and near the end of my trip, as I went to make a turn, I noticed that my oil pressure needle had bottomed out, but no idiot "Check Gauges" light on. As I eased back onto the soot pedal the indicated pressure came right back up. There was also no sickening noise coming from the engine. The rest of the trip it was the same. If I was at or near idle it would indicate little or no oil pressure. The next morning I cranked the truck for a run into town and when cold the pressure gauge came up and operated normally but once warm it was the same story. On the way home I noticed that, while sitting at idle, the gauge would occasionally read correct and occasionally bounce around from the normal at-idle reading to zero. And at no time did the "CHECK GAUGES" light ever come on. All other gauges read and function normally.

The oil pressure sender was replaced about 300 miles ago. I checked my oil and it has plenty of newish oil though this oil change I switched back to a synthetic since the truck sits for extended periods - a gallon of AmsOil and 2 gallons of a semi-synthetic heavy duty oil with a quart of Lucas oil stabilizer thrown in for good measure.

So long and short, I'm leaning towards a bad gauge motor. Is there a way to check this out? Any other thoughts as to what it could be?

 

My oil pressure gauge, sender and wiring just went for cr@p on my crew. I hooked up a mechanical gauge to be sure, and all was well with the motor.

The factory sender and gauges were never super accurate to begin with, and after almost 20 years they have a tendency to loose accurate readings.

I'm going to be installing MORE gauges, oil, volt and water, since I can't seem to rely on the factory units to provide me with accurate, and trustworthy readings.

 

Most likely it is the sender.

 

Is it common for senders to fail after such a short life span. It's literally been about 300 miles since I replaced it.

 

Oops, missed that! Check out the connector for the sender, they get all oily and dirty and have poor contact.