"Ken Hilson" > wrote in message
...
While considering options of testing with mechanical gauge, just changing
the sender or maybe even testing with another electric sender/gauge that I
already have I decided to drop the filter a couple times to get rid of the
overfill. I expected to also check the connector on the sender as I thought
it would be attached at the filter adapter.I could not see any sender but
did see 2 pipes from the adapter to my radiator. I did not realize that I
has an oil cooler in the rad. Second and not encouraging was that there
appears to be oil around the middle lower bolt that attaches the tranny to
the aluminum oil pan. Removing filter put oil on the outer bolt but I don't
see how it would wet the centre one, meaning maybe a rear main seal leak.
So question is does the rear seal leaking usually cause a drop in pressure
and where is the oil pressure sender located on the 2002 4.3? Only connector
I can see is on rear left below words "vortec" on the valve cover which has
2 wires. The sender paer says it's 1 blade , so why 2 wires and the pipe
thread looks larger than 1/4 (which I thought I saw somewhere as the fitting
size)
Thanks
> 2002 S10 4.3 with about 38k on it.
> Noticed last night that oil pressure gauge was reading lower than normal.
> Midscale is 275 kpa (39 PSI) and it normally runs about there or higher
when
> hot at highway speed Last night it was down about 1/4 scale at speed which
> it normally only would go when at idle stopped. Crawled under and noticed
> small amount of oil on the filter but no dripping.
> Difficult to check oil level when hot and with flashlight so added about
3/4
> quart and restarted. No real change, so left it until morning. Checked oil
> level and it was now actually a bit above max on dip stick so wasn't
really
> short of oil. Started it up and it read 2 bars above midpoint ( there are
4
> bars per quarter of gauge range which is pretty normal. Took short drive
to
> store and back. By the time I was back home the reading had gone low
again.
> Gauge needle moved more with rev change than last night but still seemed
to
> go to 1/4 point above idle. Read somewhere that senders can go and oil
will
> be in plug. Wonder if that might be the source of oil on filter, assuming
> sender is near filter base. Is this a common problem on these motors?
Could
> I be losing pressure hot or maybe sender is now measuring wrong when hot.
>
>