I'm driving along today and accelerate hard iin 3rd. I get a display in the center of the instrument cluster that has a picture of an oil can and the words "Fault Indicator". The display goes away in about 3 seconds and there are no messages in the "Check" menu. 30 seconds or so later it coomes back on and I notice the oil pressure guage dip to zero and bounce back up to 5. Again the "Fault Indicator" message appears and then goes away. I drive for the next 15 minutes watching the oil pressure guage carefully and everything is OK.

I got my oil changed a week ago if that has anything to do with it.


Any ideas?

 

Have you run the oil level check? Who changed the oil?

 

Yes, ran the oil level check and all OK.

Oil was changed by All German Auto in Escondido, CA. They are a Porsche / BMW / Mercedes specialist Indy. They are also a Dinan and EVO MS dealer so they should know what they're doing.

 

I have the same thing on occasion - I suspect it's either the oil sending unit or the gauge itself.

My bet would be the sending unit - but I don't think you've got any problems with your oil or the work someone had done on the change.

When it happens to me, the gauge pops back very fast - whereas if it was a problem with pressure, the gauge would take longer to climb.

 

Typical sending unit failure - I had it too, it's one of the few problems I've had in 80,000 miles.

 

Mine does it all the time and my issue is a sending unit.Its a real ***** to change.

 

Happened to me turned out to be oil sending unit.

 

mine gauge just started doing the same thing ..ill be driving and it will go down to zero and stay there for a few seconda then shoot back up again and so on so forth.. prettyy annoying.... but th car runs great so im guessing its the same problem?

 

unvmym3, it souds like the same issue as I, its a sending unit, I have a replacement but i dont think i will be changing it until my motor swap.....its a real ***** to change.

 

damn, im gonna hold off till i drop the motor for all my work also i guess....

any idea what the dealer would charge ?

 

They say they need 5 hours.....Yea its BS but thats what they quoted.
Not sure what your dealer rate is, but ours here is $140.00 and hour...ahhhh yea no they wont be doing it.

 

What's involved in changing the sending unit? You don't have to drop the motor do you?

 

no i dont think so , im just gonna have it doen when i do drop the motor when i install the rest of my tuning goodies.

 

I don't get the 'fault indicator', but my pressure will drop to 0 and then go back to normal sporadically. I runs strong so assume its same 'sending unit' issue, but just want to make sure that oil level is the best indication that I'm not doing any damage.

Car has 50,000 miles on it and it started a week ago.

 

Definitely the sending unit. You have to take off the throttle body to get to it. The part was something like $75 and about 2 hours labor to put on. The sending unit has 2 connections, one for the analog gauge and one for the idiot light. Either side can fail - mine was the analog gauge. Scary isn't it? But I'm sure it's just the sending unit as long as the analog gauge reads 4-5 bar.