I just bought a 94 Camaro V6 and after the car has been ran for about 20 minutes the oil pressure gauge shows no pressure and the check gauges light comes on. The temp gauge stays normal tho so theres no overheating but when I am driving and give it some throttle the pressure goes up and the check gauges light goes off. What could be my problem? Oil pressure sending unit? Oil Pump? I dont know I couldnt find any other threads with this problem? Any help will be much appreciated! Thanks!

 

Someone may have put the wrong weight oil in it. I would change the oil and filter, put what the book calls for as far as the oil weight and see if that makes a difference. I could be the sending unit but from past expereince with those, they either max out the guage or read nothing at all. I have a engine high mileage and when I run 5W30 at idle, it reads just above the red mark but when driving, it is a little over the 1/4 mark. I changed the oil and run 10W40 and it now idles with over the 1/4 mark and while driving, it is above the 1/2 mark.

 

It might be the sending unit, it might not. I've had it happen, so it's a cheap place to start. But if the issue actually is with low oil pressure, using heavier weight oil can raise the oil pressure reading. But that would be masking the real cause of the low oil pressure...a worn engine with badly worn bearings. How many miles on the engine?

 

It has 133k miles on it. And also the oil just got changed but im not sure what weight my father did it cause I bought the car in my home state and i am on the naval base in san diego but where is the oil pressure sending unit located so I could look at it maybe I could see something visually wrong? And also to just change it.

 

on a 3.8 it's right above the filter. start looking there. i've been through 3 sending units on my car, and they keep messing up. no clue what's going on there with mine. i have 230,xxx miles and still running perfectly.

but yeah, definitely change the sending unit first.

 

i have the same problem with my 94 v6. my friend who is a mechanic says if its the electric oil pressure guage it could be bad. so try putting a manual oil pump guage in it and see of that works.