Ever since I bought this car, the oil pressure gauge has been pinned at the maximum whenever the engine is running, even at idle when fully warmed. I thought it was a faulty gauge, but today when I was changing the oil and filter, the filter housing was still full of oil even though the engine had not been running for at least an hour.

I sucked the oil out of the housing with a tube, and a visual inspection revealed nothing out of the ordinary except for some very dirty oil after only 6k miles between changes. I suspect that there is some blockage that is causing the pressure to be too high and also keeping the oil from draining back into the crankcase, and possibly preventing the oil from properly circulating through the filter (causing the filthy appearance).

Short of a teardown, is there anything that I can do to resolve this problem?

__________________
Robert Fini

'12 ML350 BlueTec, 87k
'06 E320CDI, 270k
'05 T1N Sprinter 2500/Pleasure-Way Plateau TS, 69k
'97 C36AMG, 313k (son's)
'94 E320T, 249k
'93 190E Sportline LE, 168k (daughter's)
'84 190E-2.3/5spd (Stage Rally Racer)
'66 230 W110 Sedan (Barn Find, Vintage Racer build in progress)

I'd add a 2nd gauge for testing and verify the pressure is too high.

-Jason

__________________
1991 350SDL. 230,000 miles (new motor @ 150,000). Blown head gasket

Tesla Model 3. 205,000 miles. Been to 48 states!
Past: A fleet of VW TDIs.... including a V10,a Dieselgate Passat, and 2 ECOdiesels.
2014 Cadillac ELR
2013 Fiat 500E.

Sounds like a faulty gauge. 6K, even on a good synthetic is still a pretty long interval. Oil will be DIRTY with that mileage. Oil is not supposed to drain out of the filter, to prevent "dry starts".

__________________
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z...-RESIZED-1.jpg
1991 300E - 212K and rising fast...

Bad oil pressure sender, will read full-scale.

__________________

Gone to the dark side

- Jeff