Tahoe oil gauge reading

biglu

When I start out driving I notice the needle of the oil gauge at 40 (in the middle of the gauge), but when I get on the high way or give it some gas the needle moves between 40 and 80, probably like 60 or something.

I was wondering if this is normal or not?

rockman59

Probably normal. Most oil gauges will show higher readings when the engine is turning at a higher rpm. Not worry unless the oil guage starts dropping rapidly under the 40 mark and continues down. Shut off the engine immediately until you determine if you have an engine problem or a guage problem.

tahoe4444

I took my car into the dealer thinking my alternator or battery was going bad. They told me both were good and that there was a short in the intrument panel/gauges. When I got into my Tahoe the Oil Pressure gauge was pegged on the high side and when i turn off it drops to somewhere around the middel. It appears to be sensing the pressure but the gauge is not restting so it starts at 0. The battery charging gauge is working fine.

Dealer would not do anything even though it appears they created the problem

Any ideals on how to fix this?

kiawah

read the forum on instrument panel problems.

rj2k

Similar experience with my '01. Changing the oil I noticed that the gauge indicated 40 psi while the oil was drained out of the engine. I had the dealer look at the issue and they determined it was a bad Engine Oil Pressure Sensor (sending unit). They replaced the sender along with a bunch of other stuff I was having done. I just figured they had it fixed and I didn't really watch the gauge until I noticed a couple of weeks later that it was doing exactly the same thing. The gauge is not at all erratic, it's 100% consistent in behaving this way: it indicates 40 psi with the engine off, 55 psi with the engine idling (~500 RPM) at normal temperature, and up to about 72 psi cruising (around 2200 RPM). The gauge will go to zero if I turn the key from "off" to "on" without starting the engine, but it goes right back to 40 psi when I turn it back to "off".

I took it back to the dealer for a recheck. They performed a test with a mechanical gauge and measured 30 psi at 1000 RPM, 40 psi at 2000 RPM, and 50 psi at 4000 RPM. My actual oil pressure is fine. The dealer states that the gauge in the dash is operating within specifications, but they don't say what specs those are specifically. The gauge is reading around 25 psi higher than it should and I can't believe that's right.

But the service advisor told me that they pulled another truck off the line to check its system and it behaved the same way. And a guy at work with a Silverado told me he's never seen his gauge below 40 psi.

I'm slogging through my '01 service manual trying to find the acceptable tolerance on that dash gauge now. I think the dealer may have failed to duplicate the issue with the gauge, although I think something else is going on here.