Fluctuating Oil Pressure Gauge

savinimark1

Ok.. So I have a 2001 Mercury Grand Marquis. When I turn the car on the oil pressure gauge acts normally, but if I have been running it for awhile, and I pull up to a stoplight, or have to idle for any period of time while in Drive and not Neutral, my Oil pressure gauge will fluctuate slightly. It doesnt' drop the whole way up and down, it just shimmies and shakes This is new for my car and I'm wondering if it's a problem foretelling bad stuff down the road or just an older car with over 200,000 miles on it showing wear and tear. Thanks in advance for letting me know what might be wrong guys

thecardoc3

There would be no way to tell just from the description. That is only enough information to start to do a little testing. This could easily be just a sending unit that is failing or it really could be that the system is struggling to maintain oil pressure. One thing to consider is there are a number of Ford systems that while they display a gage, are little more than a warning light operated by a switch. Basically when there is low or no oil pressure the switch is closed and the needle drops, and when there is more than 7psi (approx) the switch is open and the gage reads normal.

A manual oil pressure test would be in order right now and it needs to be performed both when the engine is cold and when it is hot.