# Oil Pressure Gauge Fluctuates



## SD Frontier (Oct 17, 2005)

I noticed the other day that the oil pressure gauge on my 05 Frontier CC fluctuates as i step on the accelerator. it's start closer to the L end and goes up past the mid point as i depress the accelrator. I figured my oil level may be low but i checked it and it was fine.

Any thoughts? Has anyone else experienced this? this never happened on my Ranger.


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## Meta (Sep 28, 2005)

Normal.

Oil pressure should increase with engine RPM's. Ford has a habit of using gauges in place of dummy lights. The gauge is essentially on or off and the needle is either at a pre-defined stationary location or move incrementally (like temp) based on PCM feed but does not directly correlate to variations in expected input. There are a bunch of guys on Mustang forums still cussing about these (dummy gauges) today. Essentially, Ford found that if they make gauges where the needles stayed right in the middle (normal operating range indicated) people wouldn't complain or seek warranty repair based on true gauge fluctuations. It's one of the reasons many of the enthusiasts will replace all the gauges and senders with true (accurate) mechanical systems. I don't know which gauges in the Nissans are (dummy gauges) and which are mechanical or digitally representative of mechanical. The oil pressure gauge movement would have me believe that it's an accurate gauge though.


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## SD Frontier (Oct 17, 2005)

Meta said:


> Normal.
> 
> Oil pressure should increase with engine RPM's. Ford has a habit of using gauges in place of dummy lights. The gauge is essentially on or off and the needle is either at a pre-defined stationary location or move incrementally (like temp) based on PCM feed but does not directly correlate to variations in expected input. There are a bunch of guys on Mustang forums still cussing about these (dummy gauges) today. Essentially, Ford found that if they make gauges where the needles stayed right in the middle (normal operating range indicated) people wouldn't complain or seek warranty repair based on true gauge fluctuations. It's one of the reasons many of the enthusiasts will replace all the gauges and senders with true (accurate) mechanical systems. I don't know which gauges in the Nissans are (dummy gauges) and which are mechanical or digitally representative of mechanical. The oil pressure gauge movement would have me believe that it's an accurate gauge though.


thanks for the info...this is only my second vehicle since i turned 16 so i have limited experience with this. if the same is true for the ranger as is the mustang, then the gauge only indicated whether there was oil in the engine and not pressure.


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## surfermsd (Oct 3, 2005)

its nice having a gauge that is showing the actual pressure compared to Intermittent ones i have had on my jeep


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