Oil pressure dropping to Low (Zero)

Oct 31, 2008 7 Replies
A

I posted messages here before for a friend of mine who has a 2002 Jeep Grand Cherokee V8 116k miles.



Several problems now, I will post one per message starting with this one:



When the car runs in idle, the oil pressure gauge goes down right to low. It causes the check gauge light then to come on as well. If you apply some gas, it goes right back to normal pressure which seems to be a little more than half the gauge's scale. I actually performed the last two oil changes for her on the truck and there is enough oil and the right one in there and the oil change is also not overdue.



Any idea? Could I be dealing with a faulty sensor? Or the oil pump going bad? Or the PCV?



Help is as always highly appreciated. Axel


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J

I'm going to bet on a bad sending unit. Those usually go long before the actual oil pump goes.

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A

I just looked through the Haynes repair manual and didn't find anything on the oil pressure sensor or sending unit. Where is that one located? Is it a sensor that easily can be replaced? Again, I am not that familiar with this truck as I am only helping out when my friend has issues.

Axel

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A

I have had low pressure lights after using Fram filters in my KJ. Switched to NAPA Gold ( Wix ) filters and never had another problem.

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P

Connectors have a high faiilure rate too...

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L

The sensor is on the side of the engine.

They are quite inexpensive, and not that hard to replace. They are notoriously flaky, however I've got many thousands of miles on the replacement unit and it has yet to flake out like the original version did.

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D

OEM lasted about 30,000 miles (replaced under warranty) and went out about 42k later (just out of warranty). Replaced that with a NAPA and it died about 40k later. The latest one (NAPA) is starting to read a bit off after about another 24k. (need to clean the connection) I'm thinking the oil pressure sender might just be a 30k-40k tune-up part.

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