bbbngowc

Yesterday I drove my car out and it drove no problems. Last night I went to drop my brother home and I noticed the oil pressure gauge stayed at zero. Never moved. This happened once before and I did a service and it went away. Now it's back! I checked the oil level and it's fine. How do I troubleshoot this thing?

zebo87

check all around the engine compartment and see if there is any oil in the engine bay or under the car. also check the oil pressure line that feed the gage. the most usual suspects are the distributor and the rear main seal.

mjr46

for you the easiest thing to do would be replace the sending unit or run a manual /mech gauge and monitior the pressure that way, if it were in fact an internal engine issue you wouldn't get very far before kaput occured, sounds like a gauge or sending unit issue.

bbbngowc

I checked all around and it doesn't seem to be any leaking. I changed the oil less than 2 months ago. I just started it up and (Lord have mercy) the engine sounds like it's knocking. I'm thinking it's the oil pump and I'm thinking it's not easy to change.

bbbngowc

What does the sending unit do?

ryan_89_mustang

If it is already knocking then it is too late.

bbbngowc

When I start it, I can hear a loud clattering noise, but it goes away after a few seconds. Is that engine knock?

67mustang302

Depends on what the noise is caused by. The sender is basically the pressure sensor.

uedlose

you need to get a mechanical gauge on it to see if you have any press. but if you need to see now and don't have a mech. gauge you can take off the sending unit and crank it over a few sec. and see if you are getting any oil at all. if you are that don't mean that the press is right but at least you are getting some oil. if not don't start it any more and you will need to get the pan down to look at the pump and the pump drive shaft. then go from there.

mjr46

it measures the unit of pressure within the engines oiling system