Well that's a new one - oil in lense of oil pressure gauge

[Matt_INW]

Yup, Oil was in the front (behind the glass) of my mechanical oil pressure gauge. Wasn't there a week or so ago. A couple people who saw it said "never seen that before", lol.

The previous owner put the thing under the hood, not in the cab, so lucky I decided to check now vs a few days from now. Anyways, didn't trust the glass to hold out so stopped by the shop where they blocked off the end of the line for now. Long term will probably replace with an electrical sending unit and put it in the cab. But that will have to wait till I do front brakes, water pump, and steering gearbox later this year.

 

[marmot]

Not too uncommon a problem with old mechanical oil pressure gauges that have an oil line to them, as opposed to a pressure transducer and wired gauges that most modern vehicles use.

 

[IDIoit]

yup, seen it before a couple of times also.
a new gauge is less than 50 bucks.
what did you pay them to jerry rig it?
hope they used fittings, instead of tying it in a knot.

 

[icanfixall]

Sure glad you found this before the lense let go. Besides the mess you probably would have lost the engine from oil starvation to the bearings.

 

[typ4]

I have never seen a quality gauge do that, now the harbor freight gauges, yes, and a buddy of mine just kept putting those crappers on his sandrail with a 5k dollar engine. some people.

 

[icanfixall]

Russ theres no fix for stupid. When I find something broken I try to find a better repair that wont break again. I'm no expert but I try just the same at fixing something so it wont break. The guy with crappy gauges on a 5 thousand dollar engine is wanting a new engine the hard way... Or he can't learn.

 

[Matt_INW]

The shop properly capped it and didn't charge anything. I have an EGT and Oil temp gauge inside already on the dash. Need to decide what I eventually want to add... thinking both oil pressure, trans temp, and coolant temp. But not excited about 3 more gauges, lol.

 

[PwrSmoke]

Years ago, i had a mechanical OP gauge in my little triple gauge pod. It was a SW, the old good style, but anything can fail. Anyway, I'm on a trip and begin to smell a hot oil smell. Shortly I look down and see oil running down the face of the radio (my gauge pod was located above the radio) and there was a quarter cup of oil in the ash tray. The gauge was full of oil. Still reading normally, tho. Pinched off the metal line, cleaned up and went on my way. Replace that gauge with a voltmeter.

 

[marmot]

Yep my mercedes 240d was running hot motor oil on my foot one day, luckily it was just a loose fitting on the oil line to the gauge, the germans used vdo gauges and they are high quality LONG lasting gauges 420k and counting.

 

[IDIoit]

FWIW, the best way to cap the line is to put a plug in the engine itself.

if youre changing the gauge immediately, youll be alright with capping the hose inside the cab.
but i wouldnt leave it that way for long.

 

[StBernardnot]

Might be a motorcycle gauge. I had one on a '93 lowrider that had oil dampening. Kept the needle from bouncing.