Zetec Oil Pressure

[Doug Dastardly]

Thanks Bob,

To be fair, although I've racked up a few miles and had the coolant hot, maybe I've never has the oil properly hot?

I'll see what happens when I get on the road and run it for a longer stint.

[jonjh1964]

Doug,

Any long run yet? - started my 2.0L Zetec today for the first time and oil pressure was similar to yours - 80 to 90 psi

[Doug Dastardly]

Turned out I had the used the wrong connection on the sender so it was reading max all the time.

Since swapping it I've not been out for a run but on start up it went up to 90, but not onto the needle stop this time.

[jonjh1964]

Thanks Doug - just need to sort out why the tacho doesn't appear to be working!

[daveac]

Jon,

Sounds like a dodgy earth. I've been tinkering with my oil pressure sensor this weekend. Once refitted, it buried the needle and that turned out to be an earthing problem at the sender. Possibly affecting more of the loom if your tacho's misbehaving although I'm no expert!

HTH

Dave

[fatbaldbloke]

AFAIK Ford's standard on the Silvertop Zetec is a minimum of 3 bar at 4000 rpm. My old car (now AdamR's) used to show around 1 bar at hot idle even on a completely and very carefully rebuilt engine. I think there's some vagaries down at these low levels with the accuracy of the sender/gauge combination. I wouldn't get hung up about having to see 2-3 bar on idle although 1/2 if it's accurate is probably a little on the low side. The rate at which the pressure picks up when it's revved, the value under load at 4000 rpm, has it changed from where it normally runs and whether it runs quietly or has started to knock are all equally if not more important IMHO.

[1313]

My 1800 zetec idles at 3.5 4 bar and goes up to 5 bar driving. I had an oil pump issue and spun a shell