Oil pressure gone through the roof!

[DickWells]

The gauge is burried, and won't come down. The wife had it, this afternoon, and called me from across town. We went through the process of shutting down and waiting to restart, (over the phone), with no difference. I just told her to bring it on home, and we'll handle it later. Then, we got the first tornado watch for Vermont that I've ever heard, and I didn't get to try anything. So, while it rains, I thought y'all might give me some pointers.

I used to get the same thing, to a lesser degree, with my 89 Blazer 4.3, from time to time, but the gauge always went back to normal, eventually.
I suppose I'll hit the Helm manuals, but hardly know where to start looking in there for this one. Still, would rather have it pegged up high than the other way around. Any thoughts? Bad sender, bad gauge, flaky connection/ground. Anyone else had this happen with a Dura Max?

Thanks,
Dick

[DickWells]

Two-hundred-forty-two views, but no responses, yet, so here's another little tid-bit, just for info. The guage is stuck waaay over clockwise, past the scale, switch on, or off, engine running, or not. Haven't been into the manuals yet, and don't even know where the sender is, but I'll look into it a bit later.
Are any of the guage cluster components available as individual units? If not, I'll be darn'd if I'll spring for a whole new assembly. I'll just buy a good-old annalogue guage and some copper tubing and put one more instrument somewhere in my dash.

[DmaxMaverick]

If the gage doesn't move with KO/KO, it's probably the gage cluster. Yours can be reliably repaired for less than $100. If you have access to a scanner (Tech II, Predator, etc.) you can compare the gage vs. actual indications. If the scanner indicated pressure is consistent with the gage, it's the sender or connection. It's located at the forward/left-outboard/lower area of the engine block.

[Vin7587]

Were you able to fix and/or determine the cause? My friend with an LLY recently had a similar issue and it had to do with an voltage issue. He recently had to replace his batteries. If the needle does not move, it may be damaged from an electrical spike? Please post a progress report.

[jtdalrymple]

Was there not an extension of the factory warranty for bad instrument panels?
I had a sticking speedo, and the dealer fixed it under warranty, after the 3K/3yr time.
If memory serves, maybe even a class action law suit on this issue.
Jeff

[DickWells]

Well, at this point, I sure hope for a recall, cuzz we now have a sticking speedometer, as well as the flaky OPS. Speedo starts at about 35mph, now, and the OPS is down to zero. Gonna set my Edge up for speed readings, until I get some resolution on this thing. Doesn't make me feel very good about the oil pressure, though.

[DmaxMaverick]

Well, at this point, I sure hope for a recall, cuzz we now have a sticking speedometer, as well as the flaky OPS. Speedo starts at about 35mph, now, and the OPS is down to zero. Gonna set my Edge up for speed readings, until I get some resolution on this thing. Doesn't make me feel very good about the oil pressure, though.

You should still be in good shape, there. If your oil pressure (or temps) get to extreme or low, you should have an alarm and a message telling you to "check gages". These don't rely on the IPC indications, but get the input/data to and from the PCM directly. You'd would have to screw with a sensor/sender to test this, however.

[DickWells]

The new gage cluster is on order. Went over to the Chevy dealer, this morning, and asked about the incidence of the problem, and the recall/extended coverage. There was X-coverage, but only up to 100K miles. Turns out, the price is nowhere near what I anticipated; somewhere in the mid-$200 range, plus an hour or so, labor, for three-sumpin.:D Who woulda ever thunk it? Like, there'd ever come a time when this old fart would look at $300 plus as not being way out to lunch. I must be remembering what I read many years ago, now, about how much the new electronic gage cluster was for a Vette. Over $800, as I recall. Anyhow, I gotta have something to tell me whats going on around me, so I just said, "Go ahead." Will seem good to have things working right, soon.

[jblather]

Wow $300-something is excellent. I just replaced all my stepper motors and reflowed the voltage regulator - all works now except for the PRND321 display.

[DickWells]

The new cluster came in, and it was changed on Monday morning. Total was $337.00. Everything back to normal now, and 12 months, or 12,000 miles warantee on it. Just hope I don't see the same problem again. Anyway, it wasn't as steep as I would have guessed, and I still love this truck, so we'll just stay with it, and enjoy.