2000 Tundra Oil Pressure gauge drop off

I was driving today when I noticed some relatively sluggish response on acceleration and that my oil pressure gauge had dropped off completely. Oil warning light isn’t on, and all fluids are good. Turning the engine on and off didn’t do anything, and honestly the start was a little rough. Not sure how to proceed.

302150 on the Odometer

 

Filter on tight?

 

Definitely too low. Probably just the oil pressure sending unit, but I wouldn't presume. Did that in my old charger when the temp gauge would peg out max. My dad said the gauge was broke. Turns out it was overheating cause there was no coolant in it. Trust the gauge until you can prove it wrong (safest course of action). Then troubleshoot the gauge.

 

Yeah. I’m not losing oil

 

Is that a reasonable fix to undertake by myself or should I take it to a shop?

 

wait for an adult to tell me if im right or not, but i think this is it on the oil filter housing.

do you think i can moon walk?

i guess the first step would be to try to measure resistance across the sensor, then start the truck and see if the resistance changes.

i doubt this sensor would cause sluggish acceleration. My titans oil pressure sensor died in the freeze this year, and the engine doesnt care.

 

Don't jump to conclusions, verify your oil pressure first with a mechanical gauge. It is the single-most effective and accurate way of diagnosing this issue. It will hook up where your oil pressure sending unit is. It does not logically follow that any sluggishness is related to low pressure. Post your findings and we'll go from there.

 

This part has me mightily concerned.

 

Definitely, but the OP needs to verify the actual oil pressure of the motor before proceeding with any other diagnosis since it's very possible the issues may be unrelated.

 

alright, I picked up a mechanical gauge and hooked into the engine, idle started at 48 psi then decreased to 35 over time(related to the missing sensor?). @ 3000 rpm it hit 81.
According to my Haynes tear down manual, that’s within limits. Gonna replace the sensor and see what that does. Any thoughts on why the idle pressure would be low? It’s never idled super high on the oil pressure for as long as I’ve had it, but I’m not sure.

 

Doesnt sound too bad to me.

 

Everyone that read this let out a sigh of relief. No one here wants to see the end of a rig that's got 300k on the clock.

 

there is bad news, oil pressure gauge still reads as seriously low, only barely above where it was originally. But since the mechanical gauge read good I’m not too worried

 

Any recent work done to the truck? Maybe bad gas or clogged fuel filter making you have sluggish performance? The oil pressure gauges in our 1st Gens are not all that reliable to begin with. I'd still keep an eye on it though....

 

And this is the right attitude to have. No need to worry about a non-issue. Now you know with 100% certainty that the issue is the oil pressure sending unit and/or the gauge. I would strongly encourage OEM for the sending unit. If you want accuracy on the gauge, go aftermarket with a mechanical. Glad it worked out for you.

 

About 2.5k miles ago I had the timing chain replaced

 

Re: sluggishness. Considering how many miles are on the odometer I would say start with the basics. Do a compression and leak down test and verify specs. If all is within range replace plugs, wires and coils and consider fuel filter and maybe injectors. There really isn't much more to a stock internal combustion engine as far as performance goes.

 

I would also clean the MAF sensor and throttle body if they haven't been done recently.

 

I think that's actually too high. It should be in the single digits at idle, and around 40-50 at 3k. These engines tend to run on the low side.

What's your pcv valve look like?