F150 oil pressure

Paul from MI · Feb 4, 2011

Started my 2001 F150 4.2L V-6 today. Fairly cold out, about 7F. Indicator showed no oil pressure, oil pressure light came on. Ran back into the garage, shut it off. Restarted, oil pressure indicator(not a real gage) came up as normal. Oil pressure light did not come on, everything normal. Ran it the rest of the day, started it multiple times and everything worked perfectly. I don't think the engine ever did not have oil pressure, no clattering lifters, no oil leaks, oil looked good, etc. What do you think happened?

Jg20601 · Feb 4, 2011

May have been a stuck sending unit on the engine.

Seen it happen twice on GM products, the contacts inside the switch stuck turning the oil light on and the fuel pump off.

S.Crum · Feb 5, 2011

Funny thing about oil pressure gages, they are a lot like many women, you are obligated to believe them. However....the gage in my 89' F-150 was acting a little funny (225,000 miles). The oil pressure was running low at times, normal at times and on rare occasion non existant. Just a little nerve wracking. I finally replaced the sending unit on the engine which was really not expensive or a bad job to do. I also replaced the pigtail wire to it back to the harness as it looked marginal. I'm impressed. This was under 10 bucks and an hour to fix and must be relatively accurate. "ain't put a rod out of er' yet".

36 Coupe · Feb 5, 2011

My 96 F150 has read no pressure on the gauge a few times.A tap with your finger makes it jump up to normal.At 193000 it jumps me when it does that.If you had a loss of oil pressure the lifters and rocker arms would be loud.

ASEguy · Feb 5, 2011

I don't trust gauges. I would remove the sending unit and test for pressure with a fluid pressure gauge. Oil lights will typically come on below 5-7 psi. Let it warm up to operating temperature, let it idle and check the pressure then. This is a quick check for the condition of the pressure side of the oiling system. Hope this helps. Gerard

bob featherstone · Feb 5, 2011

got a 04 dakota when it's real cold & i start it the oil press gauge stays at zero, then a light comes on saying " check gauges "
shut truck off, re-start & gauge comes up like normal
problem with a sticky gauge is all been doing it for 3 years
bob

tjdub · Feb 5, 2011

Probably just a short or a bad sending unit. My oil pressure "gauge" in F-350 flakes out all the time. The first time it happened I was hauling cattle and it pegged to the high and stayed there. Engine light came on. I was panicing looking for a safe place to pull off the road (good luck on that road). Had to keep going for quite a while to a wayside and was just waiting for the knocking to start but it never did. I finally got stopped and checked it out, but didn't see anything obvious. I started it back up and it was normal for a bit then pegged again. I turned the heater off to listen for knocking and it went back to normal, turned it back on and it pegged again

F150 oil pressure

Paul from MI

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Jg20601

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S.Crum

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36 Coupe

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ASEguy

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bob featherstone

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tjdub

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