Oil Pressure Send

[lotusshaney]

Hi All,

Wanna kind of check something here.

My car has always had what appears to be VERY low oil pressure. On cold when started it goes to about 3 BAR when idle, Once warmed up it sits on the red part of the gauge below 2 bar. On a run at about 4000 rpm it reads about 2.5 Bar. Now this looks very low but I have been told by a few independents that the oil pressure senders are crap and that most S4,S4S and Gt3 have very dodgy read outs from the oil pressure sender.

What is everyone else getting. I'm running 10w60 Full Synthetic.

Thanks

Dan

[Artie]

Hi All,

Wanna kind of check something here.

My car has always had what appears to be VERY low oil pressure. On cold when started it goes to about 3 BAR when idle, Once warmed up it sits on the red part of the gauge below 2 bar. On a run at about 4000 rpm it reads about 2.5 Bar. Now this looks very low but I have been told by a few independents that the oil pressure senders are crap and that most S4,S4S and Gt3 have very dodgy read outs from the oil pressure sender.

What is everyone else getting. I'm running 10w60 Full Synthetic.

Thanks

Dan

I see good pressure on cold but once hot, I get about 1.5bar idle and maybe 2.5 under load at 4500rpm. I think the low limit at idle is .35bar and 2.7bar at WOT at 5000 rpm or something. Seems pretty common.

Artie

[lotusshaney]

Thanks Artie,

I just wanted to check. My Delorean used to have 80 lbs of pressure so you can understand why the Esprit looked low.

Anyone else have any input as 2 cars like this sounds ok but I'd like some more confirmation.

Thanks

Dan

[Artie]

Thanks Artie,

I just wanted to check. My Delorean used to have 80 lbs of pressure so you can understand why the Esprit looked low.

Anyone else have any input as 2 cars like this sounds ok but I'd like some more confirmation.

Thanks

Dan

Dan,

Here' s a picture of Shadeone's car idling. Note the oil pressure, close to .5bar at idle.

Artie

Edited April 8, 2007 by Artie

[s4simon]

Lots and lots of write ups on this specific problem on lots and lots of different Loti forums. All come to the same sad ending - Yes the oil pressure is is scarily low when up to temp.

I have notice on the S4 car that the sender is rated at 0-5 bar and the meter at 0-7 bar, so a missmatch right there. I've tried different oils and found that 15-xx oils are a little better but do not resolve the problem.

The redline on the Loti dial is 1.0 bar and the manual states that the pressure should not drop below 0.35 bar.

I've had the problem for 4 years now and don't get that stressed over it anymore ...

[Loteuk]

Hi All,

Wanna kind of check something here.

My car has always had what appears to be VERY low oil pressure. On cold when started it goes to about 3 BAR when idle, Once warmed up it sits on the red part of the gauge below 2 bar. On a run at about 4000 rpm it reads about 2.5 Bar. Now this looks very low but I have been told by a few independents that the oil pressure senders are crap and that most S4,S4S and Gt3 have very dodgy read outs from the oil pressure sender.

What is everyone else getting. I'm running 10w60 Full Synthetic.

Thanks

Dan

Had same problem until I replaced the sender. Oil pressure was on red at idle when hot but the never went above 2.5 bar.

Pressure was checked with external guage and showed 3.9 bar when hot. Sender was replaced as it was the easiest bit to start the process of finding the problem.

Now the guage shows 4.1 bar when running at normal temp.

Also, if the guage is tapped it moves up slightly suggesting the guage is crap too.............

[lotusshaney]

Thanks all,

I might go and change the sender, just to see if it makes any difference. It does annoy me when Lotus pull there normal trick and use whatever they have lying about. I could never see the point of having a pressure gauge that went to 7 bar when it never goes over 4 bar ?

Dan