low oil pressure

[Hound Dog]

i had green flag do a check on my rx-7 he said oil pressure was low for a while on start up ,could be the gauge ? or should i start saving for a rebuild ?

[J4P RX]

If they are just watching the guage then many FDs have faulty ones.  Depends how they checked it I suppose.

Cheers
Lee

[Hound Dog]

he was watching the guaauge

[Glenn Butcher]

The best way to check this is really with a capillary type gauge - not an electronic one (this way you can also check the actual readings from the manual).

Oil pressure can be low when idling, but as long as there is oil pressure on the electronic gauge when revving the car up a little - this is ok.

If he just based his comments off the gauge it probably isn\'t enough unless he has seen a lot of RX-7\'s and is basing it from experience etc.  

If the Oil Light comes on whilst driving - you are in trouble!

[Carl]

On FD\'s the oil pressure guage is renowned for giving an incorect reading,if your engine shows 0 it probably is the guage itself as they seem to get stuck to sometimes for a few seconds.
If you really had low oil pressure the engine would go wrong very quickly as there are only 4 bearings in a 13b and one going wrong soon leads to the total failure of the engine.
So rest assured that you are more than likely to be ok.
Kind regards
Carl

[Hound Dog]

thanks alot for info

[<Daneh>]

When i start mine from idle it warms up about about 4, once it\'s warm and if driving at low rpm it drops right down to about 1 if that. could ihave a problem?

[Carl]

Hi Daneh,
The oil pressure is high at first due to the oil being thicker when cold and drops as the oil warms up.If it goes up when you give the engine a rev when warm then I think it would be ok.
It is important to change the oil regularly in order for it to maintain it\'s correct lubrication properties.Every 3000 miles max is what I would reccomend.If you do it more often then all the better.
Remeber it is cheap to change the oil often as it is only a mineral and not a synthetic.
Hope this helps,
Kind regards
Carl

[<Daneh>]

Ta carl, atm it\'s only about 100 miles since it had a service at rotecnics.