Wow, okay! Thanks for the advice! I’ll be doing the oil change this weekend and will measure the old. If it had too much oil, would that cause the drop in pressure? Also, is the alarm triggered by the gauge or the pressure sensor?
On the gauges. This is a Regal 2000 ESX with Faria gauges. The oil pressure is in a single multi gauge with oil, temp, battery, fuel. The Speedo is right next to it. I will upload a pic of the dash.
Where would you recommend attaching the pressure gauge on the motor?
Yes, too much oil can cause low oil pressure as
@Scott Danforth said. But this would be a constant problem, not intermittent. And usually only at higher RPMs. Alarm is triggered by the ECM, how that data makes it to the dash horn depends on the gauges.
If I wanted to confirm oil pressure with a mechanical gauge, I would remove the sensor and replace it with the gauge.
But as a technician I need to be able to justify all the costs of troubleshooting to the customer. So I wouldn’t start with oil change and mechanical gauge. I’m more interested in why the ECM is setting a warning horn. This can only be done with a scan tool. This engine has a lot of sensors and a lot of trouble codes. Any time a warnping horn is set the ECM will log why. At this point you are focusing on oil pressure but you don’t know for certain. I honestly believe your time and money is best spent by purchasing a scan tool, the 3 workshop manuals and acquiring the knowledge needed to troubleshoot this problem or finding someone who already has these 3 things.
If your engine really is experiencing low oil pressure. This can cause very serious problems. You might be money ahead hiring someone to diagnose this problem. This engine is very powerful and efficient for it’s size, but it’s also very complicated and nowhere as easy to diagnose as older engines.
