[viperx7]

I recently picked up a 99 Durango(106,000 miles) and on the way home the oil pressure gauge started dropping to 0 and check gauges light came on. I had already figured that it might be the sending unit, so I didn't sweat it too much. The engine is running perfect and where it came on is about 40 miles from my house, so I figured the oil pump is fine or it would have locked up. Anyway, I put on a new sending unit on today and it is still doing it. The oil level is fine and just been changed. I have read other posts that said it happened while at stoplights or braking. Mine starts just driving down the road. When I got home and turned it off, then restarted it, the gauge worked fine again. Haven't taken it out again to see if it is still acting up. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

 

[Jecht]

I think you might want to get that checked. you might have a oil pump going bad. or your sump might be getting clogged. take it to a mechanic or if you know how. put a mechanical oil pressure gauge on your engine and see if the oil pressure drops any. never just assume something is working. when you do that. thats when something bad happends

 

[addicted2blue00]

its normal for the pressure to drop when you come to a stop mostly just when you have been driving hwy or so and come to a stop, my manual said that it should at atleast be 6 psi.

 

[razman131]

I recently picked up a 99 Durango(106,000 miles) and on the way home the oil pressure gauge started dropping to 0 and check gauges light came on. I had already figured that it might be the sending unit, so I didn't sweat it too much. The engine is running perfect and where it came on is about 40 miles from my house, so I figured the oil pump is fine or it would have locked up. Anyway, I put on a new sending unit on today and it is still doing it. The oil level is fine and just been changed. I have read other posts that said it happened while at stoplights or braking. Mine starts just driving down the road. When I got home and turned it off, then restarted it, the gauge worked fine again. Haven't taken it out again to see if it is still acting up. Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

heres a thought? do you or can you find out if the Belly pan gasket has ever been changed? over a period of time you will lose oil due to it being sucked in the blown gasket. and when braking the lack of oil will slosh forward away from the oil pick up. i read that you just changed the oil so that might not be the problem, yet anyways.....you wont notice the usual oil smoke or fouled plugs. but if ya romp on it you will hear ping and *maybe* see some smoke...

with the engine off, look down the TB blades.... if ya see a sheen of oil, bad gasket. this is a VERY VERY common problem with all Magnum Series 3.9, 5.2 and 5.9 engines.

 

[fseventy]

A trashed belly pan gasket will also help with another nasty problem: sludge. If I were you I would pull the pan and clean out any sludge build up and pay close attention to the pick up tube ASAP. When I pulled the pan in my truck after buying it and noticing that the oil psi was lower than I expected, I found about 2-3 inches of oily sludge in the bottom of the pan and the pick up tube was about 50% clogged. After cleaning all this crap up, I gained between 8-10 psi of oil pressure and a little more piece of mind that the engine might hold together awhile longer.

I would reccomend to anyone with over 100K on one of these engines (reguardless of how well you have maintained it: There are lots of people with impeccable maintenance records with dead engines due to oil starvation from sludge fighting the manufacturers for compensation)

You might want to even pull a bearing cap or two and check te condition of you bearings.

 

[viperx7]

I appreciate all the input. I figured before I started taking things apart, I added some CD2 Maxx additive and I haven't had a problem since. I figure that I'll do a couple more quick oil changes, maybe putting in some oil detergent in, and see what happens. Thanks again.