Oil Level Gauge Reading Low

[Germaneighter]

'79 SC
Oil level gauge is reading low....way low, but dipstick level OK.
Needle moves only slightly when key is turned on. From dead cold to full warm, needle stays at bottom in red zone. Oil pressure is fine.

Seems this happened some time back and gauge started working again. Is it more common to have a bad sender or a bad gauge?

Does the oil tank use a float? Can it stick?

[Jbabic]

Mine doesn't read at all, I had taken the sender apart then hooked it up, and it work, but only for a short time...must be a bad sending unit. as long as I have pressure and my temp is ok...I keep driving....new sending units are 50 bucks here on pelican. I give pelican my business instead of saving a buck or two elsewhere, because the technical advice I get here is more valuable than a few bucks.

[Slider79SC]

The oil tank does use a float but the senders and oil level gauges never really work right anyways. Everyone I've ever talked to says to ignore it and check your oil VERY regularly with the dipstick.

The temp and pressure are the ones to worry about if they are not reading correctly.

[stealthn]

G8er,

Mine is the same, I've found that if someone(me) accidentally overfills the oil to the "Max" line, the gauge reads great. As others have said trust the dipstick & pressure.

Cheers

[Glasgow 911SC]

I replaced my sender unit bit the gauge still gives no reading. Would like to get it working but no big deal!

[Don Plumley]

My gauge seems to be a perfect representation of my dipstick. Lucky I guess.

[RoninLB]

Originally posted by Germaneighter
Can it stick?

I replaced the stock/original one a few months ago.. the old one slowly read lower and lower over the past few years.. maybe the ground wire inside the tank/on sender, or the actual contacts, that go up and down, wear out. I like it as a baseline on when to add 1/2 qt of oil.. but I park on a perfectly flat garage.. a test for a non working ga. would be to disconnect the sender wire and ground it.. then your ga. should read max if it's OK

[Doug Zielke]

Originally posted by Don Plumley
My gauge seems to be a perfect representation of my dipstick. Lucky I guess.

Mine is the same way.
I feel so fortunate!

[jmohn]

My gauge seems to function "when it feels like it". I use the dipstick and ignore the "gauge".

Jerry M
'78 SC

[Jupiter]

Originally posted by Doug Zielke
Mine is the same way.
I feel so fortunate!

Mine works fine too, so some of them seem to work!

[Glasgow 911SC]

"would be to disconnect the sender wire and ground it.. then your ga. should read max if it's OK"

if it doesn't, could this be a broken connection instead?

[RoninLB]

Originally posted by Glasgow 911SC
"would be to disconnect the sender wire and ground it.. then your ga. should read max if it's OK"

if it doesn't, could this be a broken connection instead?

maybe.. pull the gauge and ground it from there if it doesn't peg

[Germaneighter]

Thanks for all the advice. I guess I'm due to have one that does not work. Past cars '73 E, '75 S, '79 Turbo all worked great.