Oil Pressure

[Projectuno 7]

On the standard gauge, where should the needle on the guage sit when the car is fully warm at idle?

[sensualt101 31 1 Cars]

from what i have read and experienced it will be about half way on the guage at idle when warm and increase when engine revs rise.

 

other more knowledgeable members may well be able to explain better and in full

[marksorrento205 80]

Completely vary. Some sit at the beginning, some mid way and some don't work

 

It should be called the random pressure gauge as they are not to be believed!

[bondyshambles 23 1 Cars]

Mine is just over halfway at tick over, then rising to 3/4 when accelerating.

[Ryan 99]

The gauges read all over the place. As long as it goes up when you rev the engine, and the warning light doesn't come on then it's normal.

[Grim.Badger 15]

The guage on my last GTi worked really well after changing the wire from under the dash all the way to the sensor, and iirc it did sit half-way when warm, about quarter way when hot (by hot I mean cooling fans on, stuck in traffic on a hot sunny day). Before the new wire the reading was all over the place so, as others have said, not even remotely reliable.

[Anthony 1,003]

Also worth noting that it'll vary depending on oil temperature and idle speed, and also different engines tend to read differently due to differences in oil pump drives - an XU10 engine for example will typically give higher pressure at tickover than a XU5 due to the oil pump being driven quicker for a given engine speed.

 

My general attitude is that providing it's not reading so low that the pressure warning light is on, and that it increases with engine speed to beyond halfway, then it's fine.

 

As a very rough guide though, you would typically expect around 1/4 (2 bar) on the guage at idle with warm oil, increasing to around 1/2 (4 bar) to 3/4 (6 bar) at 4000rpm. With cold oil, you can add roughly 1/4 (2 bar) to the above figures.