Has anyone experienced any intermittent oil pressure signal sending problems in their Ford V10? Sometimes, recently, upon startup the oil pressure gauge doesn't give any reading at all and the idiot light stays lit. Restarting it usually works, and/or reving it a little will cause the needle to start working, and then the pressure reads its normal level. This situation happens only occasionally, and only when first starting it up in the morning. It's a 2000/2001 Ford E450 V10....about 180,000 miles.
The oil pressure switch is screwed into the oil filter housing.
With that many miles, you may have some crank bearing issues. The only way to check it is with a manual oil pressure guage.
The guage is actually an on/off device, like the idiot light bulb. It does not read oil pressure.
The engine has the correct amount of oil; the oil changes were always done at 3000 - 5000 miles using Ford's Motorcraft 5-20 oil and Motorcraft filters. The engine sound when the gauge isn't giving a reading is exactly the same as when everything is showing correctly. It seems to me that the problem is with the oil pressure sending unit itself, and not with any other malfunction. If I didn't look at the dash, I wouldn't even know something wasn't working. Since we've had this unit from day 1, and I've driven it 99.9% of the time, I kind of have a feel for when something doesn't feel or sound right, as does anyone else who's driven the same vehicle of their own for more than 10 years. That's why I was wondering if anybody had a similar situation with the sending unit. But from the replies, it seems like this is not a common enough problem, and it'll have to get checked out by someone with the proper diagnostic tools. Naturally I don't want to just try throwing parts on it and hope something works. Oh, well.
I would replace with a Gauge and a new sending unit, The sending in yours is bad so when you change it have them to install a Oil PSI gauge and do away with the dummy light, Also if there is no water temp gauge I would replace that with a gauge also, With a oil light when its on the engine is just about done and with a temp light the engine is already hot by the time is comes on, Just way better to see what is going on before its all ready over.
I think your sender isn't sensitive enough. Probably best to swap out.
FYI - my V10 does the exact same thing on really cold morning if I run the Purolator Pure-One filter. I suspect the media is restrictive enough that the filter bypass is opening, causing pressure to drop at the sender. My suspicions were corroborated later when I read a filter study that showed the Pure One filter was the most restrictive. This does not happen to me with any other filter, so now I run pretty much any other premium filter, other than FRAM.
But.... the MotorCraft filter should not cause this issue, unless you got a filter with a weak bypass valve. You may want to put in a new filter to rule that out.
Bryan
2000 Ford E350 DRW Wagon (14-pass all captains chairs)
V10 w/ Banks PowerPack, Diablo Predator, 4.56 LS, ~350,000 miles
New Desert Fox in the works!
Home Skillet wrote: ... The gauge is actually an on/off device, like the idiot light bulb. It does not read oil pressure.
So, what you are saying is that the "gauge" is nothing more than a fancy idiot light? If so, that disappoints me; I thought I had a real gauge on my V-10. Is that also true for the temp gauge which, from what I've read elsewhere, only rises from the "normal" reading when you have a serious temp problem?
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Is that also true for the temp gauge which, from what I've read elsewhere, only rises from the "normal" reading when you have a serious temp problem?
