Oil Pressure Gauge/Sensor or pump?

[ishmot]

Howdie folks!

I have a 94 Wrangler 4 banger.... While cruzin down the road the other day I noticed that my oil pressure gauge was at ZERO. I freaked out, pulled over and checked things out a bit.... Near as I could tell oil was still being pumped to the top of the engine (atleast I could see what looked like plenty of oil there being dispersed over the valves. Anyway.... Engine Temp was normal and I'm not sure how long the gauge had been reading ZERO.... I drove about 30 miles after that and have been driving it a little for the last couple of days.... Everything seems normal. No banging valves or anything out of the ordinary that I can tell. Is there any simple way to be certain it is/isn't the oil pump?

Oh! one last bit of helpful information is that when I start the engine the pressure (according to the gauge) goes up about 1/4 of what it used to.... but then it quickly drops again.

Here is a photo of what I think is the oil pressure sensor unit:

And here is a close up of the unit and you can see in the photo how the top of the unit seems to be poking out abnormally which leads me to believe that this sensor (if it is in fact the oil pressure sensor) is bad....

Thanks for any advice you can give.

---->jared

 

[TallPaul]

Probably should replace that sensor. I had one go bad several times on my F150 and finally gave up and installed a mechanical oil pressure gauge.

If that is indeed the oil pressure sensor. Doesn't look at all like mine did.

I wonder if the Wrangler has a real gauge or a Ford-type dummy gauge?

 

[Gary Allan]

This should be in Mechanical ..but

Your sender/sensor should be right off/above the filter. You're OBDI ..so you probably have two temp sources. One for the PCM (sensor) ..one for the gauge (sender). If so, the sensor will probably be two wire..the sender ..one. That is, I think you may be looking at a temp sender ..but I dunno with the OBDI jeeps. The OBDII engines use the bypass (heater hose) part of the thermostat housing to grab the temp.

Anyway ...look closer to the oil filter.

 

[ishmot]

Just a Follow Up/Resolution: - That is definitely the oil pressure sending unit on a 94 Jeep Wrangler. I replaced the unit last night and my gauge reads as it should. Thanks for the help.

---->jared