PLEASE HELP ME!! I am a single mother, who is on a very limited income, who purchased a 2004 Ford F250 6.0 to aid me with hauling horses in my horse-business. The truck worked well for about a year, and now everything is falling apart! I am ready to sell the truck, but there is one thing standing in my way..I am having some trouble with the oil temp gauge not reading when the truck idles. All other sensors are working great at all times. I am a single mother, and I cannot afford to pay a mechanic, so I'm trying to fix the problem myself. I want to sell this truck asap, but before I can do that, I need help with the oil temp sensor. When I crank the truck, and give it "gas" the oil temp gauge registers as normal, works fine, and it will register the temp of the oil. However, when I take my foot off the "gas" or when the truck ideals, the oil temp gauge will not read, and the "check gauge" light comes on. It's so weird, because this ONLY happens when the truck is idling. As soon as you give it a little "gas", the oil sensor registers again as normal, until I take my foot off the "gas". What is going on? PLease help me. I need to sell tthe truck and can't do it until I get the "check gauge" light to go off. Please help! Thanks!

 

The oil pressure switch is bad, a cheap fix ($25 or so). The 6.0 cannot run without oil pressure and the gauge is really useless.

 

Thank you so much for your reply.. How hard is that to change yourself? Can I do it myself reading the Manuel? Thank you again!

 

A standard oil pressure sending unit socket, a ratchet and extension. Not too hard to do but it is hidden down around the oil filter housing.

 

Start by looking here, just to the right of the right-most green circle:



Just towards the turbo from this oil filter cap:


Look straight down behind the large black plastic oil filter cap to find the single-wire connector into a WHITE sensor, that's the oil pressure switch:



It's the only white and single wire connector in that area. When you reinstalled it, the torque spec is 9 lb-ft., so don't crank it in there very hard.

 

I tried to Rep you for that excellent post but I am all out...

 

An oil pressure SWITCH would be a very cheap "guess" at the issue you describe. However, in my experience with the symptom you describe, and being an early '03/'04 model year 6.0 with the early style swash plate type high pressure oil pump, it can very well be that the "BB" has fallen out of the side of the pump body. The high pressure oil pump itself, is a fairly pricey part by itself, but the labour to install it is not a job I would personally trust to a novice mechanic. The turbo and pedestal needs to be removed in order to access and replace the high pressure oil pump if it does turn out to be the cause of your problem. Hopefully it's just the switch that's causing your issue, as others above have already advised. If you want to diagnose for yourself, you can install a mechanical oil pressure gauge in place of the switch and run the engine at idle. If I'm not mistaken, only 5 to 7 psi is required to move the gauge needle to the middle of the range on your instrument cluster. Good luck.

 

Somebody correct me if I'm wrong but.....the op was concerning the oil TEMP not the oil PRESSURE so the issue SHOULD be correctable with an oil temp sensor unless I'm missing something here.....which I could very well be doing. She could also borrow a SGII or have the oil temp read at a service station with a scanner before she buys anything to correct it, at least I would try that first. jmho

The op doesn't say how she's reading the oil temp now but she does say 'oil temp'

 

Since the dash cluster only has the oil can logo and has two other temp gauges, I usually risk the guess that oil pressure is really what they're referring to.

I also haven't heard of EOT causing "check gauge" to show up in the message center since EOP is the gauge on the dash, but I can't support that with anything but conjecture.

 

I was going purely by the symptom described by the OP which points SQARELY to the engine oil pressure indicator.

 

I was confused at the start of this post. Through out she refers to temp. At no time is pressure mentioned. The last 2 lines referes to oil SENSOR not pressure.
As far as turning the light on and off the pcm does that nothing else. The dash oil gauge circuit does not pass thru the PCM so it does not even know that gauge even exists.

Since I can't trust my memory anymore I dug up a 05 manual. The standard cluster only has 1 temp gauge and that is coolant.
Starting with the Harley Davidson there were 2 one coolant and one TRANNY oil temp.

Being an 04 at least you can change the dash gauges individually. Less money and the cluster is screwed together and can be taken apart. An 06 is glued together and requires sending off to a repair shop with the necessary tools to take it apart.

 

The gauge on the dash is oil pressure. There is a sensor for oil temp but it's for the trucks computer to know when the engine is warmed up. There is no oil temperature gauge. Be sure to not mix that up when you're at the parts counter or you may get the wrong part . The pressure sensor will be about $40 at your local store or as little as $25 if you order on line and have time to wait for it to be delivered. Notice in the picture posted above that its the one with the white plastic connector on top (not the grey one).

It's true the pressure sensor doesn't have a connection with the computer but the instrument panel has its own processor and will know the key in in run and the oil pressure gauge is on the "0" peg. That how the Check Gauges light get turned on.

It's also true other issues could be keeping the oil pressure low and the gauge is correct to be warning you of the issue. Look in the area of the sensor for an oily mess. It's common for the sensor to fail inside and leak oil through the electrical connector, further confirmation this is likely the issue. Correct shop procedure would be to verify the oil pressure is actually good using a test gauge, or finding pressure is low, verifying the gauge and sensor are good and saving the expense of replacing it, however in this case I'd replace the pressure sensor and keep my fingers crossed.

Changing the pressure sensor is straight forward, no more trouble than changing a spark plug. There is a special socket for them but a six point deep well socket will do in a pinch. Unscrew the old sensor, clean up the mounting area with a shop rag and screw the new one in. It is straight threads with an o-ring to seal it, not tapered pipe thread so no sealers, tape, or goop is required, just a clean surface for the o-ring to seat on. Be careful not to overtighten it, it's soft aluminum and very easy to strip the threads. Get the threads started by hand so you can feel if it tightens up immediately (don't use the ratchet) cross threading it is another possible way to mess it up. The connector has a little locking "lever" on the side, press it firmly to remove the connector, press the connector back in the new sensor and it will click in place, no need to fiddle with the latch.

Post back if this doesn't fix it and we can give you more details on where to look next.

Good luck!

 

Is there an OEM Motorcraft filter installed with a tall aftermarket filter cap? Those can cause a low pressure at idle indication.

 

mtpiper is exactly right (good catch). Just to be clear, what does your oil filter cap look like? If you have the tall one (on the left) with the shorter filter element (on the right) under it, that can cause the oil pressure to be low at idle and the gauge is actually right.

 

...cricket sounds....