123 Oil Pressure Gauge

[ewstan]

Was riding in daughter's '83 300D yesterday and noticed that the oil pressure was reading 2 bar at 60 mph. After telling her to pull over and turn off the engine, I asked her if she had noticed the oil pressure being low. She said that sometimes the gauge pegs the bar and sometimes it doesn't. She's been driving that way for a few months!

She started the engine and it went to 1.5 bar, higher than I remember the idle pressure being when I drove the car. Back on the road, the gauge swung between 2 and 3 bar.

Any ideas? Mobil 1 15W50 level is OK. Has an approved filter. No significant leaks.

Has anyone put a test gauge together, and if so do you recall the thread size on the filter cannister?

I've searched the archives but haven't found a similar condition

Thanks,
Wray

[Wasuchi]

I tried putting a "test gauge" together, actually I was going to temporarily bypass the one in my cluster because it leaked. The problem was I couldn't find anything with the right size and pitch of threads. I'm in a small town with limited auto parts stores so you might have better luck. What I did was pull the cluster and take it in and had the parts guys figure out the size and pitch of threads on the original gauge and then tried to match it up with another gauge or anything that would fit on it. I had no luck with that. If you can pull the line out of the filter housing you might be able to get someone at a parts store who can figure out the size...... I don't think I've ever seen a size listed on here for threads on it though (I did a lot of searching several months ago too).


Another thought is to find someone with an SD that has had a bad sender (electronic) that maybe still has it...... threads should be the same on that I think. Good luck.

[ewstan]

Thanks. Sounds like a problem.

Wray

[Wasuchi]

Seems that all the aftermarket gauges are geared for Japanese cars like Hondas and Toyotas.

I can send you my old gauge if you get really desperate to find out if yours works right.... mine works ok, just leaks a little oil. I would want it back of course.