My oil pressure gauge is suddenly reading lower than usual (low white bar) when warm (photo attached).

Oil pressure goes up to 5-ish when engine is reved. There is enough 20w/50 in the car but it is getting on time for an oil change (not sure how relevant that might be).

How might I go about checking the actual oil pressure? How worried should I be?

Thanks,
Rhett




Low oil pressure at warm idle

 

With a gauge reading like that at idle that is one SPECIAL Jag V12. Frame it as a keeper.

It is NORMAL.

It is the gauge and/or the sender unit.

All mine did that, and a master mechanical gauge showed 40psi +/- at idle whilst the dash spoke that. The light comes on at about 8psi, so worry not.

The V12 is a lazy stress engine at any time, and especially at idle. The oil pump is HUGE, and moves some serious volume of oil at quite high pressures.

The Jag spec is 5 bar +/- at 3000rpm, and below that the care factor is zero.

 

Okay, thanks. Hypochondriac mode=Off.

 

Drink more, the gauges look just fine when the alcohol level rises to "just right".

 

I'm just jealous of your voltage gauge, a painful reminder that I need to R&R my alt one of these days.

Jeff

 

Okay, thanks. I'll count my blessings.

I am rather proud of the coolant temp, given it was over 80 degrees (F) and we had the a/c on whilst pushing the car rather hard along the local back roads. On a mostly stock coolant system.

 

ime more jealous of the fuel gauge, lol

 

That one is largely decorative.

 

If your XJS is full warmed up, then your coolant reading is great... Unless of course if you have air in the system and sometimes it can read low and also move up or down.