After a little study I have determined a low oil pressure problem is going to probably start to cause me problems. Once my EA82 in my 86 wagon is warmed up the pressure drops to about 15 psi per my aftermarket gauge and zero by the factory gauge. The car is an automatic, but it does not seem to matter if the car is in gear or not.

 

Is this common? What might cause this?

 

Further, in line with some of the threads about manual shift points, this Automatic is shifting at about 3500 RPM and is very light on the power.

 

Is there a way to adjust the shift point for the automatic? Is there a good tech resource for this type of adjustment?

 

Thank You All,

JKLEE

86 Wagon

After a little study I have determined a low oil pressure problem is going to probably start to cause me problems. Once my EA82 in my 86 wagon is warmed up the pressure drops to about 15 psi per my aftermarket gauge and zero by the factory gauge. The car is an automatic, but it does not seem to matter if the car is in gear or not.

 

Is this common? What might cause this?

 

If you have the owners manual for the car you can read it for yourself just to prove that I'm telling the truth, but the owners manual says it is normal for the factory gauge to appear to rear 0 at idle when the car is warm. 15psi on an aftermarket gauge sounds right on the money. That is what my RX was running when I had it on the road. I even replaced the oil-pump while doing the timing belt just for sanity's sake, and it never went up.

 

Keith

15 PSI is OK if it's at idle. It should increase as engine speed increases, to roughly 10 PSI per 1000 RPM.

Are you still using the original sending unit?

Still using the stock sending unit, but there is a second port that was used to install the manual gauge line, which runs all the way into the dash. As for the 0 pressure, I believe that falls back to Subaru must be crazy...or something like that.

 

Thank you all for the help...

 

Any thoughts on adjusting the shift point for the Auto Tranny? Here there is I believe more potential to be gained from my EA82.

 

JKLEE

you should get about 40-50 psi at 2500 rpms,per the HAYNES manual

you should get about 40-50 psi at 2500 rpms,per the HAYNES manual

 

Although if you are using an oil like 15w30, as opposed to say a 15w50, 30psi would be quite acceptable at 2500. and 15psi is heaps at idle.

Pressure doesn't matter too much, since the bearings create their own pressure due to skin friction. As long as it doesn't drop below around 3 or 4 psi at idle its fine.