oil pressure gage
 

My 1988 56osl oil pressure gage goes to 3 and stays there maxed if at any engine speed higher than idle. Is it a symptom I should pay attention to? It is my first SL i just bought and i could use any advice.

Count your blessings!

I think I understand the last comment. I defence of the MB name and after reading about all the trouble other members had with their older SLs. I drove this car on a 3,500 mile trip from Scottsdale AZ to NY and it looks and runs better than any new car I ever had. So far absolutely everything works as it should. I keep my fingers cross and do count my blessings. I wanted one of these cars for 10 years and it feels great to finally have done it.

Both my Benzs do similar (190E and R129) from cold when the oil is in it's most viscous condition, then after the oils heated the 129 falls to 0.25Bar (very hot oil), the 190 to about 0.5. At around 1100RPM the 190 lifts to 2.75-3, the 129 is slightly different where it will only attain around 2.5 when very hot - but that uses fully synthetic 10-40 where the 190 was far better off with 10-50 semi.

Best to check with someone else with a R107 TBH and also remember that different oils behave differently - another vast topic!

Sounds like your engine is in good shape. Just change the oil often and keep up with the other maintenance. If it uses much oil, think valve seals unless you can see it leaking badly.

Your owner's manual will shed some light on the oil pressure gauge issue. It usually says something like "3 tenths bar is ok at idlle, if it's zero shut the car off and take it to the dealer". The reality is that when it goes to zero it's almost always a bad sending unit, which costs only about $40 or so. But it sounds like your car is fine.

Thanks a lot for all the advise. The car uses quart of oil per 1,000 miles which I think is decent after 90,000 miles. There are no visible oil leaks of any kind.

I took car to a mechanic to get inspected. He changed ball joints which I think made handling worse (more loose).

It is pretty hot in NY in summer and unfortunately our driving is a lot of stop and go. What oil will you recommend for this engine in summer?

I hope that vales and chain can be done at the same time at about 110k miles which with my needs is 2 years from now.

I think 1k miles/quart is a bit high for that engine. I fyou see a puff of smoke at startup or as you pull away from stop sign, it may well be valve seals. You can do that with the head still installed, I believe (and hope since I have to do it soon on ours.)
Not to start an oil war, but Mobil1 15w50 would be fine for hot summers in your car.