I live in North Dakota where the past two weeks it hasnt gotten passed 10 above and i havent drove my truck in two weeks. Its a 2004 ford f150 5.4 with 58000 miles. So i went out to start it today. battery dead. big deal. jumped it and worked fine. but then i let it warm up and i come out the the low oil pressure light. so now what do you guys think i should do?

 

What brand/weight oil are you running? I would imagine that it was due to the fluid being so darn thick at that temp and tripping the low pressure sensor just after start up.

If the high was 10*F, it sounds like you need to change to a synthetic for better low temp flow properties or perhaps a block heater.

 

Spent quite a few Wisconsin winters trying to start vehicles in the cold mornings. A block heater or rad hose heater did wonders. There are also battery heaters, oil heaters etc. Having it garaged will do wonders also. No iced up windows, tires frozen to the ground, icicles on everything, and doors/locks froze shut. Did add to the adventure tho.

 

I would have the truck checked. Have a mechanic check the true oil pressure of the engine using an actual guage. The sending unit for the oil pressure light could just be malfunctioning. Could just be that simple of a fix.

 

One cold winter week, I drove my car a few blocks with NO oil pressure showing on the gauge every day to go to work. I'm talking 20-30 below temps here. Never seemed to hurt anything, sold the car after 7 yrs, and it ran fine and use no oil. Prob not the best thing to do, but after that week I put a couple of heaters on it.