need immediate help! lost oil pressure suddenly!
 

I was leisurley driving my 87 190 2.3 8v today,when i noticed to my suprise that my oil pressure guage had dropped to zero. (usually it's pegged at 3) i pulled over and made sure my oil was still in there... filled right up, and clean as a wistle, as usual. The temp guage has been bouncing around while going over bumps, but the car generally runs at the right temperature. All the other guages were working fine, until this oil pressure fiasco. I immediatly took the car to my mechanic, which was luckily about 5 minutes away. It seemed to run fine, and i didn't hear any strange noises after i noticed the guage/ (valves and such)

I'm having the mechanic make sure there's oil pressure...

any advice as to what could cause this problem would be appreciated.

thanks.

Possibly the oil pressure sending unit (that operates the gauge) or the gauge unit itself, which is the entire "circle" of gauges, ie the fuel gauge, temp gauge, and oil pressure gauge (and the economy gauge if your cluster has it).
It would be pretty easy to determine which is the most likely culprit by removing the wire from the sender unit (near the oil filter housing) and observe the gauge reading with the key "on", then connect the disconnected wire to a good ground and see what the gauge reads then. Should go from one extreme to the other (sorry don't remember which reads pegged high and pegged low, but you'll figure that out. If the gauge doesn't move at all during this test, assume the gauge assembly or wiring is bad, maybe just a bad connection at the back of the instrument panel.
If it's the gauge unit itself, they are available as a seperate part.

Gilly

has the gauge been sitting at 0? It might just be a shortcut w/ a an exposed wired. I had that problem once, right after I took my car in for an oil change. I was driving, and no oil pressure on the gauge! It was just needing a new shrink wrap on the wire :)

thanks alot. one thing i forgot to mention was that if i revved the engine in neutral, the guage would rise briefly to just under 1, but i'd have to really wail on it (+4k revs) to get it to move.

Sounds more like the sensor to me now, but the test I gave previously is still valid.

Gilly

could this sensor also be reffered to in the haynes manual as "oil pressure switch"?

that's the closest thing i can find to a sensor in my repair manual.

It could, yes.

Gilly