What causes temp gauge to not work for 4 months and then decide to climb?


Got an off topic question too. What would be signs that a camper is too heavy for your vehicle to tow? To add, the weight of the camper is in limits of what the owners manual states for truck.

 

Ok car cant answer but for towing I can. Your going to have a gross vehicle weight and a gross trailer weight. Then you are going to have a weight of people in car and items in trailer. Add all of those up and if it's more then the gvw of the vehicles rating then it's to heavy. If it's under then it's good. Also your going to want to follow the gvw on the door. The owners manual might have more then one rating on it. What's the towing vehicle? And what's the camper year, length and style?

 

Here's the thing. We had a much older and heavier camper for 3 years and never had a problem at all. Then in Feb we bought a 2005 Salem 22 foot and its lighter. We're pulling it with a GMC Envoy. No issues pulling it home when we first bought it and we've only camped twice so far.

We've towed it 3 times:

First time, no problem.

Second time no problem to campground or back but after camper was unhooked and car was still running for about 2 minutes the oil pressure dipped low and the warning came on in the car. It recovered as quick as it fell. That was in the back of our house. We drover it around to park it and it did it again just before cutting it off.

Third time it did it twice on way to campground somewhere about 8 to 10 miles into a 20 mile trip. It didn't do it on way back though and we haven't towed it since then.

The old camper was 600 lbs heavier AND all 6 of us were in car and it never did that. This one is lighter and there's only been 3 people at best in it. The 3 teens rode came separately because of school.

Car has only dropped oil pressure those 4 times, twice with camper on, twice with it just being unhooked. Hasn't done it at all any other time. Oil had been changed about 3 weeks before first camping trip and its not low which I know isn't only reason for it to happen obviously.

 

The envoy should be able to pull that no problem. The oil pressure drop is something to do with the oil sending unit or oil pump. That's something you should look into as it can cause major damage. Personally I'd get a mechanical gauge to monitor the oil pressure as the sensor could just be worn out or the gauge could be acting up. ( I don't trust electronics in cars and never well. Lol.) I'd say tow away but be careful with that oil pressure. Monitor it carefully and have it looked at.


Oh and the temp gauge could be the sensor or could be the wiring in the back of the gauge cluster. Inspect the wires for loose connections and test the sensor with a volt meter to see if it's working properly.