DIY - Oil Pressure Gauge sender

[cmdrfire]

Wow, SnapOn USA....
Good find. lol

LOL, yeah. Cleaned up and in with all my other bits now.

I can't see the pics where I'm at right now, but I find it hard to believe that the signal you got from an oil pressure sender would only give you enough to show if there was pressure or not. I think something is a bit messed up on that. Are you using a Defi sender and gauge (remember, can't see pics)? What pressure range does the sender detect?

I used the location that NewSouth recommended. I did use the Defi sender and gauge, it's got for up to 10bar. I get more than just a yes/no pressure read, on startup indicated pressure is 4.5bar, once the oil is warmed and the car is idling, pressure is down to 2.1bar, and whilst driving around with warm oil pressure sits at between 3-4bar. Somewhat useless to know but nice

 

[FliGi7]

Oh, ok so it is actually reading correctly and providing information. I was referencing your original comment about it either having pressure or not and being useless. If you had a gauge that measured in PSI it would be a lot more useful.

 

[dbduke]

The units it reads in are not important. The point is simply that the oil pressure is not something worth monitoring on our cars.

 

[blackmagic08]

The units it reads in are not important. The point is simply that the oil pressure is not something worth monitoring on our cars.

On that note if you could have 2 aftermarket gauges and one of them is boost, what would be the best one to have as the other? This is something that I have been asking myself lately, not that I am in a financial position to add things to my car but it is nice to dream.

 

[cmdrfire]

Oh, ok so it is actually reading correctly and providing information. I was referencing your original comment about it either having pressure or not and being useless. If you had a gauge that measured in PSI it would be a lot more useful.

Why would PSI be more useful? I work in bars (and generally metric). My tyres are inflated to 2.4bar, for instance)

As dbduke reiterates, oil pressure on our cars is kind of useless to keep an eye on, unless you incorrectly install an oil pressure gauge.

 

[agpatel]

oil temp...pressure you already have a light that will go off. But oil temp can say alot about if the motor is being run hard or if you need to back off a bit as you working it pretty hard. Oil pressure is important but you have the dummy light and if you actually just pull over and stop the motor right when u see the error come up you'll be ok.

 

[cmdrfire]

On that note if you could have 2 aftermarket gauges and one of them is boost, what would be the best one to have as the other? This is something that I have been asking myself lately, not that I am in a financial position to add things to my car but it is nice to dream.

Anything you want, oil pressure or temp, a cup or pen holder, voltage, aetheric flux measurements. They're all equally useless ^^

 

[agpatel]

mmm pen holder....now that is what i am talking about. Wonder if Defi makes a bad ass pen holder

 

[FliGi7]

Why would PSI be more useful? I work in bars (and generally metric). My tyres are inflated to 2.4bar, for instance)

As dbduke reiterates, oil pressure on our cars is kind of useless to keep an eye on, unless you incorrectly install an oil pressure gauge.

PSI has smaller increments and thus higher precision for monitoring purposes as compared to bar. Oil pressure gauges, if accurate, are not useless in the least as they can be one of the best monitor's for your oil life. As oil wears to its end of life, its viscosity will change and thus pressure will change, alerting you. Also, it can be used to monitor when to ease up your driving during hard runs as pressure will drop the hotter the oil gets, so you can get an idea of how your motor is dealing with your hard driving. There are more benefits but you get the idea. It's probably one of the most underrated and underused pieces of monitoring equipment for an engine.

 

[blackmagic08]

oil temp...pressure you already have a light that will go off. But oil temp can say alot about if the motor is being run hard or if you need to back off a bit as you working it pretty hard. Oil pressure is important but you have the dummy light and if you actually just pull over and stop the motor right when u see the error come up you'll be ok.

Thats the other gauge I had in mind should I choose to add one. I miss having the oil temp in the MFA on my Corrado and GLX. It actually tells you a lot more about your engine than water temp does.

 

[FliGi7]

Thats the other gauge I had in mind should I choose to add one. I miss having the oil temp in the MFA on my Corrado and GLX. It actually tells you a lot more about your engine than water temp does.

As I stated above, with an oil pressure gauge you can deduce temp as well.

 

[blackmagic08]

As I stated above, with an oil pressure gauge you can deduce temp as well.

I agree with you as well. I know that many think adding gauges is pointless or not needed but they can be nice to have. As a pilot I love gauges, even a Cessna 182 has many more than you would expect. You get used to seeing oil temp, oil pressure, fuel flow, manifold pressure (which is what our boost gauges are), ammeter, etc. When I first added my boost gauge I got some flak for doing so when only running stock boost. Even so, it can help you get better mileage as the more vacuum the less load the engine is under, therefore using less fuel. In small airplanes the measure of engine power is the manifold pressure gauge, as rpm is constant set by the blue prop lever and maintained by a governor in the prop hub.

Sorry to get off on a tangent, but I like dials and gauges that move when you move something, etc. Its just cool.

 

[FliGi7]

It's pretty amazing how a few, well-thought out gauges can help you monitor enarly all useful aspects of your engine.

 

[cmdrfire]

PSI has smaller increments and thus higher precision for monitoring purposes as compared to bar. Oil pressure gauges, if accurate, are not useless in the least as they can be one of the best monitor's for your oil life. As oil wears to its end of life, its viscosity will change and thus pressure will change, alerting you. Also, it can be used to monitor when to ease up your driving during hard runs as pressure will drop the hotter the oil gets, so you can get an idea of how your motor is dealing with your hard driving. There are more benefits but you get the idea. It's probably one of the most underrated and underused pieces of monitoring equipment for an engine.

PSI is higher precision? That's a load of nonsense. A gauge marked in PSI can be as precise as a gauge marked in bars or kiloPascals. Insofar as accuracy is concerned, as long as a gauge is correctly calibrated, units is again regardless.
I don't disagree that monitoring oil pressure (and temperature) can be useful, but it's kind of pointless on the Golf. Unless you're doing silly things to your engine, as long as you're maintaining your oil change interval there's no real reason to be concerned by slight changes in pressure.

 

[FliGi7]

PSI is higher precision? That's a load of nonsense. A gauge marked in PSI can be as precise as a gauge marked in bars or kiloPascals. Insofar as accuracy is concerned, as long as a gauge is correctly calibrated, units is again regardless.
I don't disagree that monitoring oil pressure (and temperature) can be useful, but it's kind of pointless on the Golf. Unless you're doing silly things to your engine, as long as you're maintaining your oil change interval there's no real reason to be concerned by slight changes in pressure.

Precision as in it's easier to see the smaller increments of measurable difference in one unit of psi than it is with one unit in bar. Units are not regardless in the least. The overarching point is to match the gauge's measuring range with that of your current operating environment.

For reasons stated above, and more, oil pressure is very useful to monitor for someone well aware of its implications. Your lack of this belief doesn't negate its purposeful use.