Intermittent Jeep Oil Pressure
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Year: 1990
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Background:
Went to start my 1990 Jeep Cherokee XJ 4.0 about a month ago, hadn't been started in about 1 month. It was 14deg and snowing, so I let it idle for a good 5min. Oil pressure read zero on the dash, but it sounded fine and I trusted my ears more than the 30yo sender. Got 2min down the road, it started to sound horrible, and the engine died while I was trying to pull over. Pulled on the median, oil level was fine, and for some reason I decided to start it up again. It started right up and had 30psi oil pressure?! Drove it 20 miles and everything was normal.
Drove it a couple weeks ago, everything normal.
Started it today, sounds fine but oil pressure read zero on the dash. I tried restarting it a couple times, but still reads zero.
What are your thoughts? Bad pump, something stuck in the pickup, something else? What steps should I take to diagnose?
Thanks!
Christian
Went to start my 1990 Jeep Cherokee XJ 4.0 about a month ago, hadn't been started in about 1 month. It was 14deg and snowing, so I let it idle for a good 5min. Oil pressure read zero on the dash, but it sounded fine and I trusted my ears more than the 30yo sender. Got 2min down the road, it started to sound horrible, and the engine died while I was trying to pull over. Pulled on the median, oil level was fine, and for some reason I decided to start it up again. It started right up and had 30psi oil pressure?! Drove it 20 miles and everything was normal.
Drove it a couple weeks ago, everything normal.
Started it today, sounds fine but oil pressure read zero on the dash. I tried restarting it a couple times, but still reads zero.
What are your thoughts? Bad pump, something stuck in the pickup, something else? What steps should I take to diagnose?
Thanks!
Christian
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cruiser54 (03-03-2024)
#4
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Year: 1990
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Do you have some cheapie oil filter on it like STP or Fram by chance?
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Do you have some cheapie oil filter on it like STP or Fram by chance?
Last edited by cduckle; 03-03-2024 at 08:56 PM.
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Yes the connector to the sender. What happened is after I brushed against the wiring while changing the oil, all of a sudden it showed no oil pressure, yet it didn’t run any differently. So I unplugged the connector and noticed it didn’t look like it would seat tightly on the sender. So I cleaned it and twisted at the terminals a bit to tighten them. Plugged it back in and all was good. That was a few years ago and still no problems.
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Yes the connector to the sender. What happened is after I brushed against the wiring while changing the oil, all of a sudden it showed no oil pressure, yet it didn’t run any differently. So I unplugged the connector and noticed it didn’t look like it would seat tightly on the sender. So I cleaned it and twisted at the terminals a bit to tighten them. Plugged it back in and all was good. That was a few years ago and still no problems.
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tjwalker (03-04-2024)
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Yesterday went to start it again, and again no oil pressure, on the dash or mechanical gauge. Not sure what could be going wrong. Any ideas?
Last edited by cduckle; 05-18-2024 at 01:43 PM.
#11
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1) when it "has oil pressure" how much does it have on the mechanical gauge?
2)if it's really bouncing from zero pressure on the mechanical gauge to normal pressure on the mechanical gauge (like 40 psi at 2500 when warm) the only things that come to mind are
- the port going to the sender/gauge has a lot of glop in it so the readings are funky.....but the system pressure is actually ok
Or- the pressure really is going to zero. ( Stuck pressure relief valve maybe?? If the pressure really is going to zero you need to fix that.
2)if it's really bouncing from zero pressure on the mechanical gauge to normal pressure on the mechanical gauge (like 40 psi at 2500 when warm) the only things that come to mind are
- the port going to the sender/gauge has a lot of glop in it so the readings are funky.....but the system pressure is actually ok
Or- the pressure really is going to zero. ( Stuck pressure relief valve maybe?? If the pressure really is going to zero you need to fix that.
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