Okay so this afternoon wife and I are driving directly into blizzard conditions (unexpectedly) and everything is going fine. When we pull into the place we were going and as I am about to come to a stop, truck "dings" three times, and then the "Check Gages" light comes on, and I look quickly at the display, noticing that the oil pressure gauge has a reading of absolutely NOTHING. Panicked, I shut the truck down and crawled underneath looking for signs of leaks, etc. Nada. Check oil, it is to the full line (Delvac 1). Anyways, I get back in and fire it up, and OP level comes up to normal, back into my spot, and all is well, right?

Well we went towards home and everything was fine again until I pull into a gas station where I was meeting a fellow, and as I rolled into the lot, the same thing happened. I gave it a bump of the accelerator and the light went of and the OP level came back up to normal.

Got home and pulled in the drive and put the truck in park and was waiting 30 secs or so to shut her down, and it happened again! This time I just shut it off and looked everything over. (Saw nothing abnormal). Throughout the course of the day, while doing things with the truck, this seemed to happen about every time I would come to a low RPM situation, but if I bumped the throttle, it would go back to normal for a while. She never stalled out or anything, and it ran completely normal the whole time.

The last time I drove it tonight, I got it back home into the drive and let it idle for a few seconds, and it occurred again. Bumped the throttle and nothing happened, watched it for a few more seconds, never regained OP level, and shut it down again.

As I said, nothing else out of the ordinary occurred other than this electronic stuff, and this has never happened before. Truck is full of oil, good oil, with only 4000 miles on it. I can't imagine a scenario in which a vehicle would have normal OP during regular operation then have (according to the gauge) ZERO oil pressure when under 1000 rpms or so, when the crankcase has a full complement of lube.

Any ideas?

 

Sounds like it could be a bad oil pressure sending unit. You need to get an oil pressure test gauge hooked up to it. I'd drive it straight to the dealer if you don't have a gauge.

 

Another vote for bad sending unit.

 

Check the sending units connections. They may have gotten wet or corroded from the weather you were in. Clean them up and see if the makes a difference, or just replace it.

I would not worry about it unless you hear the engine sound change, but good advice to get the pressure checked.

 

I installed an oil pressure gauge in my 05. The difference in the oil pressure readings between the OEM and the Autometer gauge is this

OEM reads 45psi at 2000rpm.

Autometer reads 65psi at 2000rpm.

Seems to be a wide difference in the readings. On average it is close to twenty pounds difference on all readings. The factory sending unit, where ever it is, is not very accurate and could be sending a false reading to the system that might be creating the issue for you. I am glad that I chose to go with the oil pressure gauge as it really suprised me with the difference. I used the ports on top of the oil filter to get my readings for the Autometer. I figure that a two hundred dollar gauge is probably more accurate than the OEM one that Dodge uses.

 

Any advice on where the sending unit is so I can clean it? I assume it is there by the oil filter?

Driving it today and doing the same thing.

 

Arnt the stock oil pressure gauges just reading some pre determined setting if OP is good(not much better the a idiot light)?

 

Going to dealer tomorrow (soon as they could get it in) and will post what the problem was when I find out. Hope it wasn't an actual oil pressure problem because I have been driving it some. I don't think it could be, because it's such a weird type of thing.

 

my vote is oil pressure sensor. I had 97 that would do the same thing. Slow down at a light and the OP would go to 0. Dealer replaced the sensor and all was good.

 

The oil pressure sending unit is on the drivers side of the block close to the ECM.

 

What I do is go get the part from a parts store so I know what it looks like!