'88 GL, 220k miles.

 

I was noticing towards the end of my last oil change interval that the oil pressure gauge was spending a lot of time at the top of the scale. Went ahead and changed the oil & filter (10w40, Napa gold filter), and now, unless I'm at idle, the gauge is still pegged at 85psi.

 

At idle the pressure will come down to ~45psi, but then if I go to 1500 rpms, the pressure goes back to 85 psi.

 

Also, my mileage has gone to ~20 on the highway

 

Soo.. any thing in particular I should check first?

 

I'm tempted to let it idle with 4 quarts of ATF to clean everything out. If it dies, I'll just have to throw the EJ22 in

 

Thanks.

sounds like the oil pressure sender is going bad.

or there is an intermittent short in the wire somewhere?

 

my .02

Hmm, oil pressure doesn't usually go UP as engines age. If it did we'd be hearing about ea82's blowing up into a cloud of oil instead of ticking lifters.

 

If you ground the wire from the oil pressure gauge the needle goes to the top, you probably have corrosion causing a partial short. Lowering the resistance, causing a higher reading.