oil pressure dropping....

[Cowboy]

Right....small question.

So my oil pressure gauge is behaving irratic, at startup its fine, then drops to zero while driving, goes to normal again as I take off again at the lights....its all over the place realy....

Now I took a look at the sending unit next to the oil filter, and as I disconnected it the electrical connections where covered in oil.....well that would surely explain the irratic behavior....I called my mechanic, he said it was simply the sending unit that was broken ,he would order in a new sending unit and replacing it would solve the problem..

Is he wright?

I know Dodge engines have a tendencie for sludge buildup in the oil pan blocking the oil pump so just this passed winter I had em drop the oil pan and flush everything out just to be on the safe side so I cant really see anything beeing wrong with the actual pump or circulation....but i'm still a bit worried driving it...any thoughts?

[Clegko]

I'd quit driving it asap and take it to the mechanic for a full once over. It could be something simple, like the mechanic thinks, or it could be something much, much worse.

[Spectre]

This is actually quite a typical Mopar failure; usually it is in fact the oil pressure sender that has failed. However, you may want to buy a replacement stub harness or "pigtail" as that often also requires replacement due to age - and it often has become so brittle from the heat of the engine that it breaks when you replace the sensor anyway.

Something else that you may wish to do is to fit an aftermarket electric oil pressure gauge in addition to the factory one. In fact, I would do that first, even if just temporarily, to make sure that it is the factory sender failing and not an actual oil pressure problem.