Hey there,


I have a '97 XL LB reg cab with the 4.2L V6.

I posted a while back about a CEL that my truck was throwing. I tried the resetting bit and it kept comming back. So I have been ignoring it for the past few weeks... (I know I know maybe that is not the smart thing to do). But now I am noticing something even stranger.

After the truck warms, when I idle in drive at a stop light or something. The oil needle drops to 'L' and then starts bouncing around. The oil light even comes on.

The truck idles smooth as silk though.

And if while I am sitting there I put the truck in Park. The needle jumps back up and the oil goes off. Also when I take off again everything is fine.

WTF?!

Anybody have a clue about this?


-dgaj

 

i had this problem on a vette I had. At idle the oil pressure would bounce around sometimes and sometimes go to zero- that was scary. It turned out to be a bad sending unit for the gage. Maybe this is your problem also.

 

And they say these trucks don't have a real oil guage you prove that wrong with yours.

 

I beleive that the oil gage needle is either at the "L" or at the 2/3 level because if the gage was actually reading the correct preasure it would read at the 2/3 level when driving or accelerating and at a lower level at idle. The volt meter is the same way. The sending unit for oil preasure might be going bad since it only happens at idle. I guess it was to much trouble for Ford to make all four gauges to work properly. I'd say change the sending unit and see what happens. Good luck.

 

they aren't a working gauge just on/off....havent seen mine move in the 5 years i've had the truck...

 

Check out this post
http://198.65.157.241/forums/showthr...threadid=90546

WLF

 

Thanks guys!

I will take a look at this sender unit. Over the weekend. You probably just saved me a trip to the mechanic.

By the way, is it worth it to get the Helms Manual for this truck? Or can I get by with a Chilton?

-dgaj