After my last oil change, he oil pressure (mechanical gauge) would fluctuate wildly about an 8 psi range at high frequency, like it had the jitters, any rpm, idle or going down the road under load. I pulled the filter and spun a new filter and it is fine now. This is a Ford and both filters had the threaded end bypass valve and are high quality filter brands.
can bad filter cause oil pressure to fluctuate
- Thread starter TallPaul
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You have a point, trapped air could have been the problem. In the two short drives I took (5 miles and 3) it seemed to improve after a few miles, but not perfect. Not taking chances I changed it out because I was leaving on a road trip the next morning. Oil pressure gauge was good the whol 700 miles, maybe would have straightened out anyway.
Which oil and filter?
I don't want to implicate a good filter company especially considering the post above about it could have been some entrapped air. Guess I could have pulled and re spun the same filter and would have found out. Something to think about next time anyway, if it ever happens again.
Pennzoil Platinum 5w20. Truck always runs 20 weight so no change there but that I had just drained out Synpower 0w20.
Filters were Wix followed by Motorcraft.
Truck has dummy gauge but I installed a Sun mechanical gauge a couple years ago. It is a 2001 Ranger 2.3L DOHC.
Pennzoil Platinum 5w20. Truck always runs 20 weight so no change there but that I had just drained out Synpower 0w20.
Filters were Wix followed by Motorcraft.
Truck has dummy gauge but I installed a Sun mechanical gauge a couple years ago. It is a 2001 Ranger 2.3L DOHC.
My mech gauges do that when the capillary gets full of oil. The engine oil pressure actually DOES flutter like mad as all the crank bearing passages are covered and then uncovered as the crank turns. But there's usuall enough air in the gauge and capillary to smooth it out on the dial.
You could put the bad filter again and look for flutuations, or not.
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If it goes away and returns with a filter swap, you have your answer.
Shouldn't be an issue unless engine is flow/psi/volume picky. Variable oil pumps(ok 2-stage), VVT, dual VVT, chain tensioners, cylinder deactivation/reactivation, .... could be quirky with defective filter.
Shouldn't be an issue unless engine is flow/psi/volume picky. Variable oil pumps(ok 2-stage), VVT, dual VVT, chain tensioners, cylinder deactivation/reactivation, .... could be quirky with defective filter.
I could install the bad filter at the end of this OCI and see what happens but I won't run it long because the can partly dented with the filter pliers removing it.
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