I have an 01 Cherokee sport, changed my oil about 1000 miles ago and my oil pressure gauge on my dash is reading 20. When I let my foot off the gas it drops to 0. Is there anything that could be going on? Or is it just a bad gauge cluster?

 

Could be a bad oil sending unit or could be a cracked head letting coolant into the oil and damage your bearings. Was the oil you changed brown or milky? Shine a light in the oil filler hole on the valve cover while it is at running temp and see if you have a crack in the head (you should see coolant seeping or bubbles) rent a mechanical oil gauge from your auto part store. Research the 0331 head crack also. Good luck

 

likely bad sending unit. easy fix, $15 part.

They go out slowly and you'll eventually get the buzzer for low pressure. there have been issues with the heads on those 00 and 01s. sounds like its just the sender

 

Spend $15-20 bucks on a mechanical gauge from your local parts store. I picked up a Bosch for $17 at Autozone when this happened to me. Turns out my pressure was just fine - it was the sending unit. It's really common.

I just used it as a test without installing it permanently. I just removed my sending unit, connected the mechanical gauge, and took some readings. 40 at idle, 60 at 2100 rpm. Not bad for an engine with ~260k on it.

This took all of... 10 minutes, tops. Brain-dead easy.


Now I have a mechanical gauge around for testing any of my vehicles. Glad I did it.