Hey all, I have a few questions for you. First off, I have a 1994 3.4L Camaro and lately i have been noticing extremely high oil pressure readings, right around 80 psi or more (top of the gage) though it fluctuates heavily as I drive. Though from what I have read this seems to be a common problem with the Camaro. Would it be safe to assume the pressure sensor is bad? of course I will try to get my hands on an external pressure gage to check my cars oil before i change anything.

secondly, a few nights ago I managed to leave my interior lights on all night (for the first time in my life) and came out to find a completely drained battery. and I mean completely.... i probably had a better chance of starting it with out the battery... so I jumped my car, let it run for 15 min or so to charge up the battery a bit. But when i went to take the car around the block it was quite sluggish. especially from a stop. Could this be some how related to my battery dying?

I plan her up to the local auto store to see if i can't get a free obd reading. But i was hoping to get some advice from ya'll as well. Thank in advances for your help!!

 

The oil pressure reading is almost certainly the sender. Easy fix on the 3.4 because the sender is screwed into the top of oil filter mount. I think you can remove the sender from under the hood.

As for the dead battery, you should *never* use the alternator to recharge a dead battery. The alternator is meant to bring a partially discharged battery back up to fully charged. Making it work hard to charge a dead battery is a good way to cook the windings or a diode. Put the battery on a charger to make sure it is fully charged. Voltage across the terminals should be 12.6V.

The PCM does *learn* stuff once it is hooked up but a 94 is pretty primitive compared to current cars. I've swapped junkyard PCMs into my 94 to verify that they worked fine and never experienced the sluggishness you describe. I'd do the battery voltage check asap and see what you find.

 

Good to know that oil pressure issue is most likely an easy fix.

I will look into getting a battery charger (guess that would be a wise investment huh?) How would I go about testing the voltage of my battery? Can I just use a multimeter? please forgive me for all these questions if they seem stupid. I am not as good with cars as I would like to think.....

 

nvm, I just did some quick research, i will break out my multimeter tomorrow...
and report back.. haha

could the sluggish acceleration be from the alternator drawing so much power to charge the battery?