Guest subdude Posted May 5, 2005 Share Posted May 5, 2005 I changed oil in my reatta 500 miles ago . car has 70,000 miles on it. oil pressure was about 1 o'clock on gauge. Yesterday I noticed it was down below 9 o'clock on guage. Oil Pump ?????? The temp guage hasn't changed, it still runs straight up. Car has fresh oil in it and I did check it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2seater Posted May 6, 2005 Share Posted May 6, 2005 The first thing to do is check the actual pressure with a mechanical gauge installed in place of the sensor. The oil pressure senders do have a history of going bad and will usually peg out to the high side at random, but they can give a false reading in other ways. Hopefully it is just a bad sender. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
padgett Posted May 6, 2005 Share Posted May 6, 2005 Agree, first check the sender. I keep a spare just for the family cars. Have seen them read high, read low, and leak. Even the factory says when in doubt check with a mechanical guage.Now if it really suddenly has 0-20 psi, let me tell you about the cam bearings I found in the bottom of a "C" oil pan... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest imported_barra Posted May 6, 2005 Share Posted May 6, 2005 The CRT diagnostics sends a low oil message on start up but the oil pressure gauge shows proper pressure and the oil was just changed and has not leaked. I can live with the message center error. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
padgett Posted May 6, 2005 Share Posted May 6, 2005 And I drove over 1,000 miles home on 20 psi max and missing the center cam bearings after the dealer "up there" said the pressure was fine, the guage was rong. Mechanical guage at home said different. Never missed a beat and looked good when disassembled. However it was winter and have no idea how long it would have continued.Have heard of one other 90 "C" engine that did the same thing and only 1990 models. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest subdude Posted May 8, 2005 Share Posted May 8, 2005 I talked to a mechanic who said it was probably sludge in the sending unit and to change it first. $22 and that was the problem. Such an excellent engine!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
padgett Posted May 8, 2005 Share Posted May 8, 2005 Such a deal. Last time I bought a GM sender it was considerably more than that. Was it the one with the metal (silver) or plastic (black) body ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest subdude Posted May 9, 2005 Share Posted May 9, 2005 the one I took off was a metal case and the one I put on new was a plastic case. I got it at auto zone Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
padgett Posted May 9, 2005 Share Posted May 9, 2005 The metal case sender was the subject of a TSB in 1990. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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