1993 Mercury Capri Oil pressure

Tiny
BEAUDACIOUS
  • MEMBER
  • 1993 MERCURY CAPRI
  • 4 CYL
  • FWD
  • MANUAL
  • 94,000 MILES
My car sat for several months waiting for repairs to the cooling system. When I got the cooling problem fixed, the car had another problem.

When I first start the car, the oil pressure guage reads very high, when the engine warms up, the oil pressure drops some--reading normal while driving, but drops completely--shows minimum pressure when at idle unless I give the engine some gas.

Due to the downtime awaiting the cooling system fix and other repairs over the past year, the oil has not been changed in about 15 months.

The car seems to be running fine otherwise, although I've only driven it around the neighborhood a few times since the cooling problem was fixed because of the oil pressure problem.

I'm hoping the car just needs an oil change, but I don't want to keep pouring money into the car if it's more serious. I've spend a lot of money on repairs on this car over the past 2 years, and although I love the car, if you think the oil pressure problem will be another major expense, it's probably time to get rid of it.

Your thoughts?
Sunday, May 11th, 2008 AT 11:11 PM

2 Replies

Tiny
MHPAUTOS
  • MECHANIC
  • 31,937 POSTS
Hi there,

I would do the engine service including the filter, and then get the oil pressure tested with a master gauge. This will give a true indication as to engine oil pressure. When the oil pressure is known you can look at what may have to be done. Hopefully it is a faulty sender unit.

Mark (mhpautos)
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Sunday, May 11th, 2008 AT 11:55 PM
Tiny
91XR2
  • MEMBER
  • 7 POSTS
Capri's (at least the XR2) always read high in temp and low in oil pressure. Having the pressure tank on a hot engine at idle is normal. Mine has been doing it for eight years now and still runs fine. I have heard that cleaning the engine grounding strap will help but haven't tried it.

BTW, be careful changing the oil filter. It is easy to damage the brazed in tubes on the oil cooler and create a nearly impossible to locate coolant leak. My car sat for over a year until I finally located it.
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Saturday, November 29th, 2008 AT 12:01 AM

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