Dancing Oil Pressure Guage

[Warren S Smith]

Since having fitted a Laminova heat exchanger to my 1.8k Series, my oil pressure guage has been doing the oki-koki. This is rather disconcerting as I am not sure if it is accurately reflecting what is going on or rather that I have a dodgy electrical connection.

 

Would someone be able to provide a technical novice with some instructions as to how I can check if there is a problem with the connection.

 

Thanks,

[mav]

Warren,

 

Check the earth points in the engin bay and unser the dash. Also check the connector to the temp sender is ok. Then test the temp sender. further info will be in the archives, as This has been covered extensively

 

Regards,

 

Martin

[Mole]

I finished installing a Laminova to my 1.8 k-series yesterday together with an oil temp sensor and I have noticed the same thing - there is a slight drop in oil pressure (which is expected and well documented) but the oil pressure guage also "flickers" slightly where is used to be rock steady. All electrical connections are OK and everything else appears unaffected. Nb - my set-up does not include an apollo tank so it seems that the Laminova itself has some effect on the steadiness of oil pressure.

 

SV 52 CAT - the Mole is flying

 

Edited by - mole on 14 Oct 2002 09:38:44

[V7 SLR]

Warren, the Caterham oil pressure sender is a notorious point of failure. Mine dances around on occasions. I thought it was the electrical connector, so I applied a bit of WD40 and crimped the spade "harder" onto the sender's blade. This seemed to cure the problem for a while. As the problem resurfaced again, I just "juggled" the whole sender, and this sorted it too.

 

Problem seems to be because the sender, being mounted low on the engine, suffers from engine vibration and road debris "dings".

 

Would suggest a remote mounting kit from Caterham. Has the advantage of offering a vibration-free mounting (tie wrap the sender to the chassis in front of the engine) and locates the sender up and out of the way of road debris.

 

I installed my laminova's oil circuit between the dry sump pump output and the dry sump "conning tower" which doesn't affect oil pressure at all (pressure is measured on the "engine" side of the pressure pump). I guess that you lot have yours mounted off the oil filter. I'd be surprised if it caused oil pressure to fluctuate, although not surprised to see a minor-but-consistent drop.

 

Worcs L7 club joint AO.//Membership No. 4379//Azure Blue SLR No. 0077//Se7ens List Tours

 

[NoLimits]

Hi Warren

 

Ditche the old sender and Guage! Dont by the remote kit from Caterham!

 

Find a local machine shop. Cut off the old sender but leave the nut and old thread usable. then get machine shop to tap out the inside of the bolt.

 

Purchase new braided brake hose for the front brakes from C'ham (this is what they supply in the kit anyway)

 

Purchase SPA digital twin pressure/temp guage and remotly mount.

 

Give me a shout and i will explain in clearer detail. 1/3 cost of remote kit from our friends with a lot of bits you just don't require.

 

MY 51VEN - SLR

Give it some WELLY!