Driving my truck the other day, and rolled up to stop light. the dinger went off, check gauges light came on, and oil pressure guage was dropped all the way down!! Took off and it went back to normal. Let off gas, did it again. Did it probly 4 or 5 times. I then came home, parked it over night, drove it the next day, and fine, didn't ack up at all.. Is this something is sould look into, could it be something major???? or just a sensor??? Thanks Chris

 

im sure youve done this, but i was driving a buddies truck when my old chevy was in the shop and his oil gauge was doing the same thing. i pulled over at napa to check the oil level and it was something like 5-6 quarts low. there was no telling how long he had driven it pulling a 32' stock trailer like that

brett

 

Yep check it. Come on guys!! Anybody ever heard of this???????

 

Check your wiring especially around the sensor.

 

my 98 did it when a year old, dealer reprogrammed pcm, with some mopar code, they stuck a sticker with the code on the front underhood panel, all my fluids were full, new oil also.

 

I had the same problem. For some strange reason it started last summer when my wife made me turn on the A/C towing to the races. (Even here in GA, I'm more of a 75/80 window down kinda guy) Any way, about a mile or so from the track when we get into "town", the oil pressure gauge starts dropping to 0 at the stop lights. I checked the oil, but it was good. By now, I'm kinda freaking out, but have no choice but to drive it home as I can't leave my junk at the track. Going home, everything seemed to be fine right up until I pulled into my subdivision. I changed out the pressure sensor, and everything was good for 3 or 4 months until a friend asked me to run the A/C again. Sure enough, my oil gauge starts going haywire! I searched several threads on this sight that leads me to believe this is a very common problem. I feel pretty confident everything is OK, and that the A/C thing is just a coincidence. After I get my truck back from the shop, I plan on installing an oil pressure gauge just to be safe. Best of luck to you!

 

'98 is the only 12 valve that can be reprogrammed.
Don't do it. What it does is turn your gauge into an idiot light, it will only read normal and zero with no inbetween.

Use only senders from Cummins, the generic autoparts ones don't last long. You'll end up paying more in the long run.

 

My guage started acting up so I installed an after market guage and plumbed it into the oil filter housing. Is there a pressure difference between the oil filter and where the sending unit is? The factory guage has never gone over 40lbs and the new guage shot up to 80 when the engine is cold. And is running between 50 and 60 on the highway. does this sound normal or high?

 

I'm not sure if its normal or not, but I have an aftermarket oil psi gauge hooked up to the same port and I get the exact same readings you do. 80psi at start up, and about 40-60psi when warm. I would assume that the oil pressure is the same throughout the motor, but maybe it is higher there at the oil filter. I know the factory gauge is not that accurate, but that seems to be a bit too much difference. Don't know.

 

I had a somewhat similar problem. A friend of mine used to own my truck and he told me he was driving it and the oil pressure started to fluctuate then it was normal. The next time he went to start it he had no oil pressure so he shut it off and towed it to a shop. The shop hooked up a manual gauge and said it had no oil pressure.They told him he proabaly needed a new motor. At this point I bought the truck. First thing I did was pull the oil pump out it looked OK so I put it back in and started the truck and I had oil pressure ran it for 5-10 minutes and still had oil pressure. I let the truck sit for a few hours and went out to start it up and go for the maiden voyage and no oil pressuer again. This time I pulled the oil pan and discovered a hole worn in the pickup tube screen and the KDP in the pickup tube. What was happening was the KDP was getting sucked up to the oil pump causing a loss of oil pressure then it would fall down into pickup tube and get oil pressure for a while. Moral of the story is if the KDP is resting in the oil pan your problems are not over.

Good Luck
Kerry

 

I had the exact same problem a month ago. I bought a new aftermarket guage and was starting to install it. The sending unit was a little different than the factory one and i just didnt want to get into the whole process of changing everything. Bottom line was i bought a new sending unit (oil pressure switch) from the dodge dealer for $30, changed it out in the dealer parking lot, and have not had any more problems.