Electric oil pressure guage

Post by **Peetee** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 5:59 pm

Can anyone tell me if this can be fitted to a car with a 1300 ital engine?
There is a electrical tap by the oil filter.

The guage wiring is a mystery to me also. Three wires (ignoring the illumination feed wires) are +, - and S. Where do they go to?

Post by **Cam** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 8:18 pm

Well, there is the pressure switch by the oil filter, but I guess you could unscrew that and replace it with an electrical sender for a gauge as opposed to a switch.

Never used an electrical oil sender, but I would presume + goes to a live feed, - goes to earth (assuming neg earth) and S goes to the sender on the engine.

Post by **rayofleamington** » Wed Oct 19, 2005 10:57 pm

A pressure sensor will normally require a regulated supply (eg 5 Volts) and if you want it to work at a temperature range of -20 to +120°C then it's going to be a lot more than a couple of quid too!
The laboratory ones don't usually give enough output to drive a gauge so unless you can find something like that on a modern car, I'd go for the nasty oil pipe to mechanical gauge option.

BTW - the series II had an oil pressure gauge as standard!

Post by **lowedb** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 8:00 am

The best way is to find the sender that was supposed to go with the gauge. They look very similar to switches, but are NOT the same thing. They were a popular accessory fitment on minis and things. Normally you'd unscrew the switch, and put in a Tee piece that you would screw the switch and the sender back in to.

I'd agree that the gauge needs a regulated supply, but if it's an accessory it might be designed with that built in. I think a bit more research in to the source of said gauge would help.

Post by **simmitc** » Thu Oct 20, 2005 1:33 pm

The gauges and senders are readily available from any good motor accessory supplier or vehicle / marine wiring company. Older gauges needed a supply from the voltage regulator behind the speedo, but many modern ones incorporate circuitry so that a simple 12 volt feed will suffice. It's important to matche the correct sender with the correct gauge as different models will have different values. Electric is far better than mechanical - the pipe won't split and dump all your oil on the road.