Volvo 480 Club Europe

Just wondering if someone can tell me what my oil pressure gauge should be telling me if everything's hunkydory. I don't believe I have any problems with my car at the moment, I'd just like to know what to look out for so I can use the gauge properly.

At the moment my gauge tends to go straight up to the 70 mark when I start the car from cold. Once it's warmed up it hovers just at the bottom of the white zone at idle and then runs fairly steady just before those three dots when I'm driving around.

Cheers, Ed

my understanding was that the worst thing it could display whilst driving would be zero, i.e. your oil pumps packed up - bad news, or at the very least your oil pressure sensor is gone, which is something thats worth having anyway.

sounds like your gauge behaves exactly as mine does. i would expect the increased pressure reading when cold to be due to more viscous oil at lower temps or am i wrong?

if the sensor packs in it will read open circuit all the time and the gauge will go up to max and not move.

Ed

The way you've described it your gauge sounds fine - mine behaves like that too - idle at the bottom of the white zone, needle sits just touching the top of the printed number "7" @ 3000 rpm.

1000 rpm should be 29psi and 3000 rpm should be about 51psi (on warm engine). Without crediting the gauge with too much accuracy, assuming 70 psi to be the right hand end then the needle on both our gauges is sitting at about the right place!

Hope that's helpful

David

Cheers guys, help and advice much appreciated.

What's your oil pressure like on your 480?



Status when testing



Oil pressure @ 1000rpm (idle)



Oil pressure @ 2000rpm



Oil pressure @ 3000rpm

My oil has been leaking from the sump so it's been off again and (i hope) fixed, I don't think my oil pressure was ever this low so I need you lot to advise.

When cold the oil pressure is 3/4 on the dial but once hot it's just above red @ idle.

Pressure does go up when driving but whenever you stop it's back to nothing almost.



More info on my thread @ http://volvo480.northernscum.org.uk/for ... l+pressure

Mine's the same at idle, not sure about 2000rpm, and at 3000rpm mine's a bit higher, closer to 70psi (IIRC). I'm pretty happy it's all ok from what I've seen here.

what type of oil are you using? if its fully synth and really thin then it could account for the lower pressure.
love vaders angry red digi clock

martinholmesuk wrote:


Oil pressure @ 1000rpm (idle)

Thats what mine does once warm at idle, when i first saw it i though my engine was knackered but thats how its meant to be.

@ Murf,

Magnatech or whatever it's called 10/40 normal shit.

Martin

Mine reads the same at warm idle, but your 2000 and 3000 look a tad low. Mine just touches the "7" at 3000 rpm when hot...

Also using Magnatech 10/40.

David

Murf wrote:what type of oil are you using? if its fully synth and really thin then it could account for the lower pressure.
love vaders angry red digi clock

Unless Ed's changed it already, she's got Magnetec 10/40 semi-synth in her. I've only ever run semi-synth in my 480's, as I've been advised that as fully synth is so much thinner, if there were any places that were weak oil seals, the fully synth would almost certainly find it's way out through them, and semi synth would stop this happening as easily.

Basically, as far as the oil pressure guage goes, when it's cold, you should have a lot of oil pressure, all through the rev range. As it warms up, this oil pressure will drop at idle (to inbetween the red and white on the guage), but build up again when you rev it. That was always the case on both my 480's, anyway!

Oh, and that volt and oil pressure guage wasn't fitted as standard, Ed! Oil pressure guages were only fitted to the earlier 480's - it's something I added as an extra (along with the digital clock).

Ben.

I have just bought my 4th Volvo 480, a 1995 Celebration model with an oil pressure gauge.

The gauge shoots up to MAX the moment I turn the ignition key on, before starting the engine.

This is either a faulty sender or a broken wire.

Can anybody tell me where the oil pressure sender is located on the engine?

If you have a normally aspirated engine, and someone stuck a meter gauge set in (which is a one minute job) without exchanging the oil pressure switch for a combined switch/sender unit, then this is the expected behaviour. These are standard on turbo engines, but are lacking on the n/a engines, so there is a wire left open, and thus the meter will show full scale. You will probably also have a turbo pressure gauge stuck at atmospheric pressure

Thanks for the thought, but the oil pressure gauge and voltmeter were both standard on the 2 litre Celebration model.

I need to find and identify the sender.

A simple oil pressure switch only has a single connector, whereas a gauge sender would be bigger and it would have 2 wires going to it.

It's in front of the engine, a bit to the left, with an orange and a yellow wire. This is the schematic diagram: