Hello everyone, I am wondering if my oil pressure is lower than it should be. I installed a Glowshift oil pressure and temp gauges in my 2005 Honda Civic with a 1.7 VTEC engine (a JDM D17A) about a year ago and I was a bit concerned when I saw that my oil pressure was going down to around 12 PSI at hot idle (oil around 185 degrees). I found that the minimum spec is 10 PSI at idle with the oil at 176 degrees F and 50 PSI minimum at 3K RPM and I was exceeding both of those specs, but I still didn't like having only 12 PSI of oil pressure at idle. For those of you who are wondering, I installed the oil pressure sensor in the block where the factory switch for the idiot light was and I installed the temp sensor in my oil filter sandwich plate on my oil cooler's return side.
I was about due for an oil change at the time I installed the gauge, so I replaced my Pennzoil Platinum 5W20 with 5W30 and gained about 2 PSI at idle. It now runs at around 14 PSI at idle with the oil fully warmed up. I haven't been too worried about it since it has good pressure at normal driving RPMs (45 PSI at 2k, 65 PSI at 3K, and up to around 80 PSI at 7K redline), but I still wonder sometimes if this is something I should worry about. For what it's worth the pressure has been consistent since I installed the gauges and is not dropping over time.
The engine seems to be in very good condition inside. Before I installed it 3 years ago I planned to rebuild it to make sure everything was good, but I decided to just change the gaskets when I took it apart and found that it was very clean inside, the cylinder walls still had good crosshatching, and the 2 rod bearings I pulled looked great with only very minor scratches. Since then I have put about 30K miles on it with no problems. I did not check the oil pump while it was apart though, I assumed that it is good.
If this was your car, would you be worried about only having 14 PSI of oil pressure at idle? Thank you in advance for your input, it is much appreciated!
I was about due for an oil change at the time I installed the gauge, so I replaced my Pennzoil Platinum 5W20 with 5W30 and gained about 2 PSI at idle. It now runs at around 14 PSI at idle with the oil fully warmed up. I haven't been too worried about it since it has good pressure at normal driving RPMs (45 PSI at 2k, 65 PSI at 3K, and up to around 80 PSI at 7K redline), but I still wonder sometimes if this is something I should worry about. For what it's worth the pressure has been consistent since I installed the gauges and is not dropping over time.
The engine seems to be in very good condition inside. Before I installed it 3 years ago I planned to rebuild it to make sure everything was good, but I decided to just change the gaskets when I took it apart and found that it was very clean inside, the cylinder walls still had good crosshatching, and the 2 rod bearings I pulled looked great with only very minor scratches. Since then I have put about 30K miles on it with no problems. I did not check the oil pump while it was apart though, I assumed that it is good.
If this was your car, would you be worried about only having 14 PSI of oil pressure at idle? Thank you in advance for your input, it is much appreciated!