Oil presure problems...

[Richard A. Coyle]

Yesterday while driving my 98 Cat I got a alarm and saw the oil presure warning light go on...

It seened like the oil presusre gauge was going up and down all by its self.

I stopped and checked for what I thought was going to be a low oil in the crank case only to find it was fulll up, even a hair over full.

After restarting it did not seem to happen again, so far.

Any ideas, fears or warnings?

Note so far, no leaks.

Rich

[cateraowner]

what's the oil weight you're using?

for the first time I put in 5w30 and find that my oil pressure would drop and set of the warning. this happens when I'm at a stop light with fans off (low load)

and now my car idles a bit rough, I'm looking forward to my next oil change where I can replace it with 10w30 and see if it all goes away.

[Richard A. Coyle]

I am in AZ and understand it is running 10W 30/or 40

I has 134,000 so could be a little loose.

I think it is the same low idle and low presure...It was afternoon and HOT out side.

Rich

[Army_MP_From_MO]

Originally Posted by Richard A. Coyle

Any ideas, fears or warnings?

Rich, My fears are loss of engines and spending thousands of dollars replacing one.

You'd probably win a million dollars on Deal or No Deal. You got kohonas! I wouldn't have restarted my car for a million bucks.

[Richard A. Coyle]

From all the posts I have read these seem prone to A) bad senders, B) low pressure at idle when hot.

Also leaks from the Oil Cooler, so I checked the oil and found it full and no leaks.

Also my fears would be around $1000.00 for R&R of a used engine.

Rich

[Richard A. Coyle]

Ok more data, it happens when she gets around 215+ degress hot.

Then idle is too low and she seems to not have proper pressure even at 2000 RPMS, it even seems to dip and surge a little even if I hold steady at 2000 stop and let her sit for a little while and all is fine again.

What ever it is, it is tempeture related.

So any ideas??

Weak oil pump, too much wear some where? Failing sensors?

Rich

[Army_MP_From_MO]

Did your check engine light come on along with the oil warning light? You might want to get her codes checked.

[Richard A. Coyle]

No check engine only the oil warning and later the tranny warning came on a for a while and then drop out.

Say is I am right the 98s and 99s have a few problems and is the 2000 or 2001 much better??

Rich

PS I am looking to buy this but have not paid for it and can return it and get something else.

[Army_MP_From_MO]

You might have some codes. The ECU may have detected a momentary problem and stored something to wait for a second incident which probably will kick on the check engine light. Run by an Autozone and have them check it, they don't charge to hook it up and print out a code list. I hope something pops up so you can make an educated choice to keep her or not.

[Richard A. Coyle]

So what is the weakest link?? Most likely?

Oil pump, crank, cams, she has a set of rebuilt heads on her.

Give it a couple of minutes rest and shes off and running fine again.

Rich