Weird electrics!

[Jules65]

Can anyone explain to me why the following occured;

Got in the car this morning (at 0600) and set off to work. To be fair I never checked the oil pressure reading as it is something I have never really had available on a gauge to look at in a car. I turned on the rear window heater/de-mister and after several minutes I formed the opinion that it was not working as nothing was happening. I did however notice that the oil pressure gauge was showing zero. Once the initial shock passed and I had pulled over turning the engine off I realised I had already done 5 miles and the engine was still running smooth and sweet. I started her up and continued on my way to work but the gauge still read zero. Once at work I checked the fuses which were all okay (I thought turning the rear heater on had blown something). Having completed a 9hr shift I got back in the car turned the key and 'hey presto' full oil pressure!!!!

The gauge is reading a constant 45 and as before the engine sounds sweet. Is this a problem anyone else has experienced?

Jules65 ???

 

[ianp6man]

hi jules,
doing a lot of p6's, i usually find that the problem is bad contacts. take it out ( the gauge in the car ) clean with emery or similar and replace, this usually in my experience does the trick.

 

[Rovertron]

I had a very similar problem only this week with the wipers, horn and air blower all non functional. Then the clock conked out.

I thought it was fuses but they were fine. Basically, the positioning of the fuse box is not really ideal to keeping all the contacts clean. After a little detective work with a multimeter, I tracked it down to the ignition side of the circuits, the contact to the fuse box were filthy, some cotton wool buds, wd40, a nail file and a bit of patience everything working as it should, all done.

I definitely agree with Ian, it's 9 out of 10 times the actual contacts. The best investment electrics-wise I've made is a cheapo multimeter.