Posted: 1/27/2008 3:57:14 AM EDT
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I have a 1998 F150 with the 4.6L V8 and the oil system has been acting screwy lately. I has started having fluctuations in the oil pressure gauge. Iw will drop to zero and the Oil Pressure Warning Light will come on. It will then go back to normal, and then keep going from normal to zero. After a while it will drop to zero and stay there. If I stop the truck and turn the engine off, when I restart it, the gauge will got straight back to normal and be fine for a while. There does not seem to be any specific even to reason it starts to do this. It has doe it before in the past, but usually when I am ~6-8K miles since my last oil change. In the past, I got the oil changed and it would stop the shenanigans for another 5-6K miles. I just got the oil changed, and it has continued to do this. So my questions are this: Any ideas on what may be causing this? My first idea was something was blocking the pressure sensor port and restricting flow to the sensor. Where is the sensor located? What else can I check? The vehicle has ~200K miles on it now, and I have put the last 100K on it. I keep it pretty well maintained, I just had one time that it went ~8k miles with out an oil change, but I check the oil regularly. Thanks for the help. |
| Oil pressure senders are a common failure. My dad has a '97 with the 5.4, and during the fall/winter when it started cooling down the gauge wouldn't respond for like 3-5 miles, then it'd pop up to normal. The sender itself is like five or ten bucks and screws into the side of the oil filter housing, it's been a while but I think you'll need a 13/16" wrench to remove and install it. I'd try that before anything else. |