Oil Pressure Gauge

[Johnny A]

Sorry if this is a topic that's been covered previously and, if so, please just direct me to the relevant thread, but as a new Z owner (3 weeks and loving it) , I'm trying to suss out what the "normal" range of readings should be on the oil pressure gauge - e.g what should it be reading at tickover, at 70 mph etc? How do I know if it's too low?

 

The owner's manual isn't really any help on this.

 

Any advice from experienced Z owners appreciated.

 

Johnny A

[drewbie]

Hi Johnny

 

The oil pressure isn't SPEED dependant, it's RPM dependant, ie the faster the engine is revving the more oil it needs and therefore the higher the pressure. At full revs the oil pressure gauge will be topping out too - whatever gear or therefore final speed. At idle the oil pressure will fall right down.

Quick test that all's OK is just to slowly rev engine in neutral and watch the pressure steadily climb.

 

Final point is too watch dealer on services - mines used standard oil from stock on last one and then had to drain it all and replace when I pointed out it should be at least semi-synthetic - personally I use full synthetic due to the extended service periods.

 

Hope this helps.

[Chesterfield]

As above really, if you rev the engine high when its still relatively cold (not something I'd advise doing) the pressure wil nudge the far end of the scale.

 

On idle, most seem to have the needle at anything from 30 to 14/15. Mine persoanly sits at around the 15-18 area on tickover.

 

I look at it this way. This is the first car Ive owned with an oil pressure guage, before I just used to check tyhe dipstick every now and then and as long as it was clean and at the right level, that was all I had to worry about. Now with the addition of a guage its just another thing to be paranoid about. As long as it doesnt drop off either end of the scale, and the dipstick shows its got enough, that'll do for me.

[Ebized]

On idle, most seem to have the needle at anything from 30 to 14/15. Mine persoanly sits at around the 15-18 area on tickover.

 

Using Motul 300 fully synthetic, and on idle when fully warm mine is the same as Chesterfields. In 6th gear on motorways at 70mph the needle is just on the +side of 60 (vertical reading on the guage).

 

A couple of months prior to my first P1 service I had noticed that the pressure had dropped by about 5 on the lower reading and up to 10 on the upper reading and found the engine needed 1/2 litre of oil. I don't know what oil Nissan put in the car at the factory, but various threads on this forum led me to conclude that a decent synthetic oil was preferable which Opie oils effeciently supplied and I got the Nissan dealer to use rather than their whathaveyou.

[Johnny A]

Thanks guys.

 

As you say, if the gauge wasn't there and the dipstick reading was fine then you wouldn't worry about it!

 

Thanks also for the tips re. oil. I see there's a lot of info about that on the forum. No idea what it has in it at present as it hasn't had its first service yet - due no later than September. All I've done is dipped to check that there's enough in it and that the oil is reasonably clean.

[Guest prescience]

On idle, most seem to have the needle at anything from 30 to 14/15. Mine persoanly sits at around the 15-18 area on tickover.

 

Using Motul 300 fully synthetic, and on idle when fully warm mine is the same as Chesterfields. In 6th gear on motorways at 70mph the needle is just on the +side of 60 (vertical reading on the guage).

 

A couple of months prior to my first P1 service I had noticed that the pressure had dropped by about 5 on the lower reading and up to 10 on the upper reading and found the engine needed 1/2 litre of oil. I don't know what oil Nissan put in the car at the factory, but various threads on this forum led me to conclude that a decent synthetic oil was preferable which Opie oils effeciently supplied and I got the Nissan dealer to use rather than their whathaveyou.

 

Don't forget that as the oil gets a bit older it gets a bit thinner (unlike me ) and so pressure will generally read a bit lower as less pumping force is required to drive it around the engine