Found it. It is smaller than I expected and looks smaller than the photo. Did Ford change the design?

 

Hello everyone, my first post here.
This subject is why I joined. This thread is over 2 years old too...

The oil pressure gauge on my 98 Ranger XLT, over the past few months has been acting very funny. At low rpms (almost always at the top of first gear, accelerating as well as decelerating) the oil pressure gauge either dips to the bottom or wildly fluctuates, before recentering itself. While it doesn't ALWAYS do this, it does most of the time.

I'm pretty novice. Does anyone know what the problem is or have an idea?

Thanks,
Fitchman

 

Welcome to FTE!!

I suspect a bad sender but it's always a good idea to check the pressure with a test gauge since it's SO important.

 

You have to bypass the 22ohm resistor to make this work either in the line to the sender or on the printed circuit board on the back of the instrument cluster, part of the reason Ford did this was because a lot of there new engines will not carry much oil pressure at idle. especially those using crank driven pumps. And again the fact that the on/off oil pressure switch is a lot cheaper to build than the pressore switch. And I know people that would ignore the light or gauge and keep driving them until they lock up regarless of how much warning they got.

 

2000 B3000... NOT an idiot gauge... (it normally stays 1/2 to 2/3 of way up but DOES fluctuate... can verify by slipping clutch and almost killing engine and watch gauge drop to almost 0 and bounce rapidly) - HOWEVER

I worked on a 1997 2.3L ranger the other day... guy just bought it used and noticed the idiot gauge very quickly.. I put a sender on it (same part # for gauge and/or light)... acted the same... told him this is normal. He just wanted to make sure it was working correctly.

Kind of dumb if you ask me, but what can ya do? I don't build them I just fix 'em.

Good luck

 

if oil pressure dose drop into danger zones is there a back up light telling you of the motor hazard there is? all i see is check gauges which makes sence for temp and battery but since the oil gauge is set to stay in the middle how would the guage light come on is there a seperate sensor to monitor this?

 

No, when the oil pressure gauge drops, this will light the "check gauge" light also.

 

The oil pressure guage in my 2004 doesnt work at all cuz ford apparently saw fit to remove the guage all together in the 2004 and up models. I may just put a pillar pod on and install good AutoMeter guages. I have mechanical oil pressure guage and water temp guage with a 5" monster tach that I had in my mustang.

 

Well believe it or not, the oil pressure gauge was doing exactly what it was supposed to be doing all along. After having my oil changed it stopped it's erratic behavior immediately. I changed the oil before and must not have put in enough, and the oil level right before changing was insanely low.

Now the engine is full of oil, and the gauge is back to being steady.

 

You went 4 months with a fluctuating gauge/light and you didn't check the oil level not once ?????

 

That was the weird thing. It seemed fine, then lately I've ... been to busy to check ..

The other thing was I kept reading that the gauge was a dummy, so I figured it wasn't really displaying an accurate reading.

 

I'm not going to get into the electric vs mechanical gauge argument. Personally, I prefer mechanical, but modern electrical gauges from reputable companies should be fairly accurate. I installed an electric Autometer oil pressure gauge on my "A" pillar last year. I really wanted a mechanical, but was afraid of line chafing (and eventual line failure in the inside of my cab) running it through the metal of the kick panel and A-pillar. For a couple of months, I wasn't sure if it was accurate, so I installed a mechanical gauge as well just to check the accuracy. I ran both gauges for several months. The electric gauge only showed about a 5 psi difference (on the low side) compared to the mechanical.

 

I did this fix to my '90 F150 and '91 Bronco and it worked fine. But I was hesitant to do it to my '98 B2500 since is it OBDII. Is the ECU using the OP sender for something, and would a fluxuating signal mess it up?

 

...and i made a mental note of exactly where the gage came to when my '95 Ranger was new so I could tell when and if the pressure begin to drop.... had always felt good about oil pressure and integrity of engine.... guess I was conned too.... The voltage/alt. gage must be a true gage since it gives a different reading with ignition on vs engine running.

 

That's good to know. I want to install a gauge, but don't want the oil tube (I,ve never had problems with one, but the thought remains).
Dono