Check Gauges Light

If you want to make this easy you could just put a new sending unit it and be done with it. You've just described a defective sending unit.

Denny

At least don't feel alone! My 2004 Hemi does exactly the same thing. Only once every few months, and not in the last six months... Did (when still under warranty) take it to the dealer, but they did nothing as it was OK then.

Same situation: start, no OP reading, and a Check Gauges light. Shut down, and restart, and all was well. I know it had oil pressure, just was not reading.

Because my problem kinda went away, I'm not trying to fix it yet.

And yes, the sender is analog, the computer interprets that and drives the OP gauge. If any gauge is out of bounds the "Check gauges" (or whatever it says...) light is turned on and it bongs to get your attention. (This happens when the battery voltage is too low, temp too high, etc.) The "check gauges" light will turn off if the gauge returns to a 'normal' reading as well. Does not require shutoff, it is dynamic.

Oh, and never had it start reading right unless I shut down either.

I lived with the problem until yesterday when I had to have my mandatory State Inspection. Well it is not the sending unit, shop did mechanical pressure gauge check, Oil pressure was good at start. They put a new sender in and problem remained. I did a Instrument Cluster self diagnoses and got an AA code so Monday 8/1 it goes to the Dodge dealer for PCM diagnoses. Happy Camping. snipped-for-privacy@NOPANTS.juno.com Remove NOPANTS To reply by direct E-Mail;

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Silly things... My 2004 has done the same thing, but eventually it stopped doing it. It always would 'go away' if I shut down and restarted the engine. (and it always did truly have good oil pressure, so it is/was a dash-cluster/PCM problem.

But I've not had an occurrence of the problem in at least a year, so I'm thinking it won't be back.

Have you checked your truck for codes recently? My truck was acting fine, but a random check for codes using the on-off-on-off-on method threw a code that indicated the PCM had died.

Heh. The first shop I took it to went on and on about how hard the PCM is to get to in my truck, it would cost tons for labor, yadda yadda...

I looked it up in my service manual, in the 2001 Dakota it's right on the firewall. I could have replaced it myself, if I knew how to get a properly programmed one. Took it to Dodge, the PCM cost a lot but only took about 15 minutes to replace.

The only difference I noticed in my truck between "dead PCM" and "new PCM" was my gas mileage improved significantly.

jmc

How much for the part?

Suddenly, without warning, NotMe exclaimed (7/31/2011 2:30 AM):

I can't remember but I think it was around $800. Not cheap!

jmc

What kind of noise did it make when it died?

beekeep

Suddenly, without warning, beekeep exclaimed (7/31/2011 7:49 AM):

No idea. I didn't even know it was dead. I just sometimes randomly check for codes when I think about it (well, it IS 10 years old). Zombie Truck for some unknown length of time - it was brain dead but still doing it's job :)

jmc

Good thought, perhaps I was not totally clear, but the check gauges warning would come one, and the oil pressure gauge would read zero. So the check gauges warning was valid, but the oil pressure gauge was reading incorrectly.

Just got back from the Dodge Dealer, wallet is $160 lighter. But I got oil pressure reading on the gauge upon initial start now.

PCM was good, Instrument Cluster was good, oil pressure Sender/Switch was good. Problem turned out to be a bad connector at the Oil Pressure switch. Don't know exactly how they repaired it, but its got a

$80 bucks to diagnose the problem, (Flat fee to read the codes and the TS manual). $65 Labor and $15 for shop supplies and tax.

I'll go out later and look to see if wire was replaced and spliced or if connector was "adjusted".

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