Typical Oil Pressure Gauge Reading

[mich@el]

Besides water in the oil or vice versa, could you tell if you had a cracked head from a consistently low reading on an oil gauge?

[lachiek]

Because mine moves I know it is doing something but if it was always low from what the other guys have said I wouldn't want to base an expensive decision to fix a cracked head on it. If mine was consistently low I'd be 1. checking oil in water vis a vis etc and 2. getting a new guage.

[Ben-e-boy]

I have a VDO gauge on mine. At cold idle its at 50psi , at hot idle its at 21psi and back to 50psi under acceleration

[Super Safari]

4 on mine !! think its nomral

[Bigrig]

4 when cold and accelerating, about 2 at speed, and just over one when warm and idling.

[patch697]

Follow MR's advice & go after market if you really want to know whats going on because Nissan's gauges are useless & will have you sh!tting bricks for know reason what so ever & lets face it the only reason we have them is to keep an eye on things to prevent engine damage (Patrol God forbid) in the first place so you need ones that work & work properly. IMO

[tkn]

I think the Nissan manuals for each model all give oil pressure figures in kilopascals and pounds per square inch (psi).

If my memory serves, for the TD42 at 3000rpm (engine hot) the range is between 42psi and 57psi and at idle oil pressure should not drop below 11 psi.

At start up (engine cold) my TD42 oil pressure is about 55psi, which drops back to about 25psi with the engine warm.
With the engine hot and towing and/or with a decent load the oil pressure holds about 42 - 44 psi at around 2600 - 2800rpm.

The figures are from an aftermarket brand oil pressure gauge.

I found that Ryco oil filters (with anti drain back valve) shorten the time the engine runs below pressure at start up.

Another "kink" in the oil pressure thing is that old oil (i.e. that should have been changed 1000kms or more ago) will often give a good "hot" oil pressure reading (including at idle), but is definitely not doing your engine any favours.

[Evil!]

i think mine is dodgy then from cold to hot or idle to accelerating it sits at 4 but only when the motor is running

[Bigrig]

i think mine is dodgy then from cold to hot or idle to accelerating it sits at 4 but only when the motor is running

Yeah, the OE ones are fairly crap mate as you no doubt know - time for an aftermarket gauge!!

[moo_r32]

i get worried every now and then when mine drops to just on 1... but eventually comes back up.. i figured the light will obviously come on if it does drop to "0"