[jcollins]

A few weeks ago my 95 ZJ (5.2) developed a pretty bad oil leak. After taking it to the local hack mechanic they told me that they couldn't tell me what's wrong without tearing the top half of the engine off. Here's the strange issue that I have now....The oil leak stopped and my oil pressure dropped to almost zero (according to the gauge). Normally without oil pressure one would expect to have a dead motor, right? Well, I've driven it for 2 weeks putting around 2k miles on it, and no knocking. It runs fine! WTF? I'm obviously getting oil pressure otherwise the truck would be dead.

Summary:
--Oil pressure gauge reads almost zero. It shoots up to around 15-20 psi on startup though
--Oil leak strangely stopped
--It still runs great


Any ideas or help would be greatly appreciated.


Josh

[cmonson]

have you checked your oil? Maybe no more leak as there is no more oil. Pressure surges at startup from a little bit of oil being in the crankcase, as soon as it starts pumping there is no more oil.

2nd, why would you EVER take a chance and drive around with 0 oil pressure? If I EVER lost oil pressure in ANY car, I would pull over and have it towed.

check your oil

[greasefingers]

Do not believe what you read. Since the oil pressure transducers are notorious for failing, I suspect the same thing is going on here. The transducers leak oil as well!!

[cmonson]

regardless, if you have 0 oil pressure, get it checked out immediately.

[greasefingers]

Keep driving and order an oil pressure sender.

[jcollins]

Sorry, I should have let you know that I do have plenty of oil, and normally I would NEVER drive a car with no/low oil pressure, but when my RPM are at or over 2K the oil pressure reads around 10 psi. Greasefingers, could you explain the transducer? Are you referring to the sending unit?

[greasefingers]

Yes the sending units leak oil and they also make the dashboard gage read incorrectly. I do not have your engine, but mine is located directly above the oil filter and it looks like this

[djdoug99]

Originally Posted by cmonson

have you checked your oil? Maybe no more leak as there is no more oil. Pressure surges at startup from a little bit of oil being in the crankcase, as soon as it starts pumping there is no more oil.

2nd, why would you EVER take a chance and drive around with 0 oil pressure? If I EVER lost oil pressure in ANY car, I would pull over and have it towed.

check your oil

He said he had been driving it around for 2k miles. If there was no oil left he would have more serious problems.

[jcollins]

Thanks Greasefingers. I guess I was under the impression that if the sending unit goes out, then you have no oil being pumped into the engine at all. I guess that will be my first step.