This Low Oil Pressure Sensor Almost Destroyed My Engine! Must Watch 

I've got a 74 mustang and all of a sudden my oil light started flickering after it was stored for the winter.I noticed the car was way low on oil and the plug of the sensor was covered with oil.Thank you for this video.You're a lifesaver

Thank you!! We were planning to travel on vacation and I kept smelling oil and seeing small leaks on the ground. Thanks to you I'm going to change it right away!! Have a great day!

My 2006 Chevy HHR was leaking oil. I couldn't determine where the leak was coming from until I saw your video. Turns out that oil was leaking from the oil pressure sensor/switch. I replaced the sensor and now no more oil leak. Thanks.

Sounds a lot like the issue I had on my tractor. Installed an Autometer mechanical oil pressure gauge because the original dash had bit it long ago. It had a plastic 1/8" tube to the gauge. That tube eventually split lengthwise, and pumped out all the oil while i had my back turned from the instrument panel while running the backhoe. Stinking cheap tubing cost me a crank job. Gotta love it when the equipment that is to protect your investments is what ends up ruining it.

All these bells and whistles sure can cause problems. Glad you were able to find and fix your leak.

Wow, the same thing happened to me. Not the oil sensor, but the brake light switch on my 57 thunderbird. Went to stop and brake pedal depressed all the the way to floorboard. Fortunately I was able to stop the car. Opened the hood and brake fluid everywhere. Found that the fluid escaped in exactly the same place. Between the metal housing and the bakelite material surrounding the connectors. I plugged the hole where the sensor inserted and installed a manual switch. Sad that we are now getting these inferior parts.

“It happens because it happens to me…“ Welcome to my fucking life! I have the same types of issues and have to search far and wide for answers eventually not finding them and eventually the problem either resolving itself, a hard kick or cause of explosion may solve it as well… What I absolutely love is the type of engineer to design a part that fails in the on position, the whole point of the device is to make sure the engine does not run or start running if oil pressure is below a threshold, if the device itself should fail than the engine should not be able to start or should shut down at the devices failure. They also called us a hazard analysis critical control point… Believe it or not I found that many faucets and showers fail at their control in the on position even if they were sitting off they will instantly randomly just start spewing hot water. Think about that next time you leave your home for a weeklong vacation… Thanks for the videos, cheers!

If the engine had run a little longer, the oil pressure sensor would have sensed low oil pressure and would have shut off the engine. (Performed its intended function.) The sensor is what is known as a "fail safe" device. It HAS to work for your engine to keep running. When the contact points open, it will shut the engine off. Although most of the oil had spewed out of the engine, there must have been enough to keep the diaphragm engaged and the contact points CLOSED. I don't suggest you put it back in to test it, but I can guarantee, it would have shut off shortly after all oil was gone.

Happened to me yesterday while doing works on my bike, warming up engine heard a knocking noise from top end, heads, valves etc.. very unusual then as bike warmed up it started to leak oil the plastic bit that attaches to the aluminium part of the switch had cracked, i assumed it got too hot and broke, had to take flush out oil, remove oil filter out, remove old switch in pieces( the plastic bit) and now waiting to reinstall new one and filter plus refill oil, reminds me to warm up bike and do a round check around the bike before setting off to any journey, good it happened while at home... thanks for your video.

Was stored in unheated garage attached to house but not a humid envoronment. Always run it once a month to get rid of any moisture. That was the winter the windchill hit -35 below zero. As I said, there is NO WAY! I would put another one back on. I just put a plug in and regularly check the oil level as one should. I still say these sensors just make people lazy thinking they don't need to regularly check their oil. Boy, did that freak me out though when it happened!

Hi, it may be the fault with the oil pressure switch seal, but most likely to be the fault of the oil pump relief valve sticking or jamming in the open position when extreme cold temps occur. I have seen oil filters blown off completely due to this. It tends to find the easiest route out possibly blowing the seal in your sensor.

Good to see this my 2008 Chevy avalanche engine is blown due to this I called the dealer and asked them why was there no oil in my truck. I have no leaks etc ... It seems that these trucks are burning a lot more oil ....then the dealer is putting .......I need a new engine ..... Chevy Corp is stalling ...... About to get my lawyer on them ....Smh

1. It never intend to shot engine off. 2. What is more reasonable was happened is a blocked breather, which cause the engine bottom gasses not to be able to evacuate to the body throttle, which means you engine internal surrounding had a high presure that was seeking where to go out, and this sensor wad the first to fail. Usually you would see oil comes out from the sealig arround the engine block. Check your breather system. I'm pretty sure it has a clog.

A friend of mine has a Dodge truck and his engine quit on him 5 mins before he got home and somebody told him that his oil pressure sensor went bad. He also said his oil guage would jump around a lot. So, to me, it makes sense that his oil pressure sensor might just the reason his truck shut off. 🤔

I didn't hear you say what kind of vehicle that was off of. That style pressure switch is very common on most GM products. That switch serves 3 purposes (1) oil pressure. (2) cuts off the engine when oil pressure is totally lost I.e. the external oil filter relocation housing hoses blow popular on 4.3 and 5.7 trucks and blazers (3) its purpose is to shut off fuel pump power by unplugging that senor will cause longer cranking times on vehicle start up it

I had a similar issue on my car. It has a sensor like this one for low oil pressure light. I had the light coming on at stop signs and stop lights and then would go off when I started moving, so I replaced the sensor, which is basically the same as the sensor in the video. That took car of the oil light coming on. A while after that I checked my oil and I was a quart low which was a little unusual but I just added a quart. a few weeks later quart low again but it didn't appear to be leaking , as far as looking for oil on the floor of the garage after it's been parked for 24 hours. Then maybe a week later when I backed out of the garage I noticed a trail of oil drops so with the engine running I looked under the vehicle (from the side of the vehicle not directly in front of it0 I could see oil dripping so iit was only leaking while the motor was running. I shut off the engine and no more leak. Then with the car not running I took another look underneath the car and on this sensor , where the black portion meets the metal hex portion the oil was leaking from that area so I did the proper setup so I could safely look under the car with the motor running and sure enough the oil is seeping out where the black plastic portion meets the metal. I guess just by coincidence at that moment the sensor kind of "let go" and the oil started coming out quite a bit faster. I may have lost about a quart or so in the 10 or 15 seconds it took me to get back up on my feet and around to the drivers side and get in the car and shut the engine off. The only plus side of all of this was it happened in my driveway so I had a friend run me to the store for a new sensor and that took care of the problem. For some reason these sensors seem to pretty much be bad out of the box. there are alot of forum entries of people having this exact problem , either old sensor leaking/ going bad but seems much more so that new ones fail with in a matter of days/ weeks. Mine was probably leaking from day one but because it doesn't have oil to it until the motor is running they don't leak until the motor is running and it goes unseen. As for the generator, my dad had a big Honda and it died on me one day and I had forgotten all about the low oil shutdown. My dad was usually real good about maintenance so it never occurred the oil level may be low. I called the dealer he got it from and the first thing the guy said was check the oil. I thought no way is it low, but it was. Turned out my dad thought I was checking it so it never got checked. I had changed it for him a couple times but never thought of checking it because he usually took care of that stuff. That time the sensor actually probably did some good. But I know for a fact they can catostrophically fail.

You take good care of your equipment, so you don't need it. Thanks for posting. Cold weather and O-rings. Reminds me of SST Challenger. Happy New Year!

I have done dozens of oillight switches. Bakelite to steel. But they drip and make a hell of a mess. Never had one spray that much oil.

Thanks for the warning. By the way, engines aren't affected by wind chill, only warm blooded mammals, like us. The engine can only get as cold as your lowest temperature, which you neglected to mention. That's the number I'm interested in.

Thank you very much u just dont know how helpful this video was for me I cant thank u enough

This is the most common failure point on these types of pressure switches, an easy solution is to go with a different type of switch or gauge for the oil pressure

I guess the shutdown feature intended to eliminate need for an oil pressure gauge? Had a bad oil pressure switch on one of my vehicles and seeing the gauge at low indicated the problem.. Otherwise oil was just emptying like your situation

Its man made, all man made items eventually fail for some reason. it fairly common on oil sensors, if its wired up correctly it will shut engine down when pressure gets below set parameters

Not all oil sending units are designed to shut off your engine in fact most of them are not however the only one that I've ever had that was designed to shut off the engine was to a generator though but for the most part they just let you know the oil is low

During a power outage my Mom"s Kohler Generator 20RESA engine died: 39 engine hrs. before outage,139 at engine death. Why didn't the low oil pressure shutdown kick in? Layman understanding and google research seems to be that low oil=low oil pressure. If a product promotes 'low oil pressure shutdown' what is the layman to understand by that?

Oil pressure sensor does NOT destroy engines!!

Was the generator stored outside in cold and/or humid environment? If so water vapor in the crankcase (from the air humidity) condenses in the crankcase (short cycling the engine makes it worse because oil doesn't heat up enough to boil off water. In winter accumulates in oil pressure switch and freezes, poof, breaks it or blows seal. Then you have a pressure oil leak, just as you describe. I had a 1973 Toyota Corrolla that blew one out every winter......

That sensor looks like a standard automotive type similar to what Chevy used to use. Maybe I'm wrong, but a single cylinder stationary engine seems to vibrate way more than a larger automotive engine, which may be why it failed. Bad part application from the factory, IMHO. BTW-The generator I have does kill the spark. I don't think they are all wired the same. The reason I know this is because mine would not start, because the sensor had failed.

We use these on very high end motors that use a external dry sump oil pump that is driven with a belt from crank pully and if the belt ever breaks during a race or what ever, you want to sence a no oil condition to keep from burning down a 60K motor but common sence would high lite installing a strainer/filter that keeps out contaminates that cause failiers such as your diaphragm seal. Your engine kept running because you still had oil pressure in your motor and would have shut off your motor at below 12 psi. These units never fail or ware out just from use, failiers is caused by being plugged during operation where no oil can be circulated back into motor after motor is shut off. Oil is still trapped in the diaphragm under pressure that's why an small in-line strainer is impairitive in any application. So if I were in your shoes, put it back after blowing it out with high pressure air and attach a 1/4 inch in -line strainer on unit, very simple, I would bet you will never have this problem again but I hope you don't loose oil pressure in the interim . Good luck!

Good evening my car is a Mazda Premancy petrol and 1.8hp 1999-2004 model it shot oil n just started smoking white a week ago pls how do I fix it

At most a ecu will shut a motor down due to no signal from this sensor. Most of these sensors are called dummy light sensors. Nothing will save you from an oil leak besides yourself!

It fails 2 ways, the leak is bad enough, but then no oil shutdown! I am trying to add oil shutdown to my 10 hp B&S 200000 series that does not have it. Does anyone know if possible without tapping/drilling block. Thx

Glad you had no engine damage. Maybe it DID NOT have any seal in the sender. I'd take it apart and see what is up.

I didn't work because its not a low oil switch ,, it is a low oil "Pressure" switch ,, doesn't matter how much oil you have it matters what the oil rail pressure is... So it helps to know exactly how a particular part works ,, sorry you just have it wrong..

I've had 2 sending unit failures on my generac 22kw home generator. I've been lucky that it 's shut down on low oil. Generac should fix their sending units. This is within 6 years

don’t know if i have a bad oil sending unit i drive for a while and when i change gear to park or reverse happen a couple time the oil pressure light and battery light goes on and engine shuts off if i start the engine up again it start up no problem i check the oil and my levels is good i hear no knocking noise coming from the engine it’s odd it’s keep happening randomly and it does not happen when car in drivie only when i change gear to park and a couple of times to reverse about to have a technician check it out

many thanksfor the explanation, on my on case is that the oil switch is on always while driving & I observe oil leak around the sensor switch.Please I need a help what could cause that to happen.

Thank you... This video helps

Have a 2500 Silverado 6.0 vortex have replaced oil pump, still no pressure and a lifter pecking noise not using oil or no leaks

Will a bad sensor cause the car to not start or to not stay started?

Sounds to me they need to re-engineer this part with this failure point in mind! Maybe with the advent of micro-electronics, they could put a device in inside that could detect a gasket failure.

Oil pressure switch or sensor in some model vehicles will cut the power to the fuel pump to shut down the engine..

Happens all the time specially on GM cars when i see big oil leaks thats the first thing i check

I wouldn't expect an engine to shut down because of an oil leak. But I would expect an engine to shutdown after it has lost enough oil to cause a drop in oil pressure.

2012 camero low oil pressure stop engine light came on shut car off won’t start can someone tell me what may be wrong with the vehicle plz reply

Thanks fkr sharing i had simular problem with after market oil pressure (nylon hose breaking off (autometar) since then installed electric and just today bought oil temp sensor thta looks exactly like tht hope it holds (also u should include name and brand of that sensor

en que parte va ubicado el trompo de lubricaccion del spark gt modelo 2011

That's what my Nissan Armada need it before my engine got messed up now it's doing the same thing with the oil pressure it used to drain 6 quarts in a week I only had it for 2 weeks and then it got messed up I I change the oil twice before it got messed up now I'm being cautious and making sure everything is hundred percent it's not burning 6 quarts now but it is burning half a quart a week I am going to change this sensor and I will let you guys know the pressure gauge in my car is acting up to

Does the oil pressure sensor cause a check engin light and cause the engin to misfire cut struggle to start when not warmed up

Thanks for posting this... I have a Bristol 40' sailboat with a 40 westerbeak diesel. It drained my 3 qts of oil in about 10 minutes. My alarms went off and I looked to see 0 oil pressure and shut her down. Very scary. Should I just put a plug in or put in a new sensor ?

I have a Chevy S10 and everything was working fine and then all of a sudden I lost oil pressure completely and it's just pouring oil from underneath and it looks like I haven't got underneath it yet but it looks like it's coming from that sensor.

Better off buying a new quality switch and installing it. Going without is taking a bigger chance. And if paranoia takes hold, JB weld the seam...then, sleep well.

Thanks for the info.!

I had a 93? Toyota Tercel with a 22RE motor and the pressure sensor was leaking but non of my lights were on but also it was still pushing oil into it.

i have this switch added to my 53 m37 army truck 50 lb psi norm going on 12 yrs now never a problem mine gives a warn red light on low or no oil pressure its hard to see how 50 lb in that tiny hole could cause that leak

Great info on the video. Liked. Can you post the part number on the oil pressure sending unit and if possible the schematic diagram for the 3 connectors. Thanks.

Same thing happened to me on my 350. It was for the idiot light, replaced it with a mechanical sensor.

can this be the same thing as a oil pressure switch ? i have a 94 celica

I heard from the house the gen 7750 making noise went out an the motor running ruff so I shut down th motor check the oil ,down had ex filter,added more oil, check oil for medal none found 🤔

Hi, thanks for your video. my father has got a guardian 7kw Ng generator with a GH-410 engine. From last week on, as soon as he starts its engine, after around 6 seconds the engine stops automatically and during these 6 seconds of running, the "switch oil 5PSI - part no. 0D9235” (similar to yours) leaks oil. Leakage stops as soon as the engine stops. The speed of oil leakage is around 1 droplet per second. Now, I wonder whether the problem is of this part. As the generator is in a far remote village area, we only have to buy the spare part and freight it to them to be installed by themselves. Would you please give your impression?

How did you remove the oil pressure switch from the engine block. Did you simply unscrew it from outside of the engine or dismantle the entire engine to get it removed

I was wondering can i leave the sensor disconnected (as long as I am checking oil level) all the time?

Never seen an engine shut itself off because of a bad oil pressure sensor

happened to me twice! 2005 GMC Yukon Denali 6.0L. I can attribute to a bad sensor once, but twice within 3 years? Could something be causing high oil pressure inside the engine?

Hi sir, i done a oil change and oil filter change on my car, the oil light now shows up for a brief moment, like 5 or less seconds then it goes away, it never done this before the oil change, do you think i got oil on the oil pressure sensor? also a side note, the car makes a rattle noise for a couple seconds with the oil light on, once it stops the oil light goes away. but weird thing is it was making this noise before i done the oil change anyway. should i be worried about the Oil light and rattle noise? other than that the car runs brilliant after i put the oil in, it was so black before. now nice and golden

Just my thought on this but you can buy a better quality oil pressure sensor. That way somebody that's not as mechanically inclined as you uses the generator they don't end up burning it up blowing it up messing it up. Is me I buy a high quality sensor. And simply wire in a Piezo alarm. Simple and cheap. But then again I tend to overdo things example I have a Dixie chopper 60". It has a Kohler Pro command 25HP Motor it holds almost 2 qt's of oil but with up sizing the oil filter and also I l bypass filter. Is that same engine now holds almost 5 Qrts!! More oil less Is oil share. Is lower oil temperature. Is longer running better protected engine. Just an idea. I don't think I would do this on a generator but something like a 0 turned that works hard well I shouldn't say that it works hard I only have 2 acres of grass to mow lol. So I would say this Machine is underworked if anything but it'll last Longer than I will

I just started my John Deere 345 with a Kawasaki engine after a few seconds smelled oil burning. Looks like the oil is coming from what is called an oil pressure cut off switch, but it doesn't look like the one you show

Thanks for the sharing

How can I check whether oil safety working properly or not

This happened to me going down the highway in a 1987 Chevy S10 Blazer like an idiot I was younger and drove the vehicle home about 10 miles away luckily I had Lucas Oil Treatment in there and it kept my components nice and lubricated it did not hurt the engine surprisingly. The oil dumped out of the plastic part ridiculous engineering. I replaced it was good to go

It probably hadn’t shut down because it still had enough oil pressure to make the switch.

Hi, I really like your video, but I got worry. My car the oil shows 92%, but in the needle on oil gauge in the dashboard is moving . No engine light, and motor sounds perfect. Can you help me or guided me. I really appreciate

Hi my name is ronald i have 2009 cadillac escalade i just change my oil pomp and the pressure switch,i still have the same problem when i drive it keep saying low pressure oil stop the engine

That is a oil pressure switch , and has nothing to do with oil volume. Looks to me to be a cheezy chungking brand at that. Put a Hobbs brand back in? They are not likely ever to come apart. I have been using them for 45 years. Due to cost cutting measures the quality of the contacts has dropped. They shut the engine down when oil pressure drops. You can buy different types and ratings.

I wish my car had that sensor my engine will run with or with out oil , it's good for oil changes when your new filter is dry

What kind of car did you take that off of?

That's a law. Suit

@proclaimliberty2000 i have a 2009 bmw 328i. i took it to mc kenna bmw because my car was stalling on me while driving. they told me it could either be 1.fuel pump (which i changed and still stalls) 2. oil sensor 3. weak battery. any tips? when car stalls it still has electrical power. but take like 30 45 mins before car starts again.

the don't shut off the engine lol

what name brand generator?

So what you are saying is generator is safer now that it doesn't have engine shutdown protection. Your engine still had psi because you were not completely out of oil very low yes but not out. Because you still had pressure. But now your oil pump could freeze up or you could run completely out of oil and now you are sure to burn up your engine.

A failed oil pressure sensor will NOT shut off most any engine in a car.

just to let you know they do not shut the engine off

I have a Chrysler 300 2005 I changed my oil pressure switch drove it around for about a day and a half in the light came back on so they changed it twice so now I'm stuck like what is the problem if you can help please let me know

My mechanic told me my 'oil pressure sender' was leaking oil...is this it or are those 2 different things? Trying to figure this out and finding a replacement is head splitting

i added this low oil senser to me vintage dodge truck put a tee in oil tube to filter screwed this sensor into the tee this an (idot light ) for low or no oil pressure when i turn key light comes on tells me it good cranking the eng light goes out tells me i have oil presure you must stop if light comes on while eng is running

I have had this issue multiple times ,

it happend to me today it was purring out so lucky i seen it because i new the guage was reading wrong didnt think it was going todo what i seen today new motor nearly was broken lucky lucky

very unusual occurance

what type of generator? My Kawasaki power partner 6000 starts beautifully, oil level at about max, then shuts off. I'm thinking faulty oil level sensor

Same thing happened to me on a Kohler command 25hp

Do 2000 Toyota's have this?

the engine should've shut off the second pressure dropped. eng. still had pressure. gen. mech for 30 years.

You got lucky you were not on the free way doing 70.......

I do not have the same as your generator mine is a champion which disconnects oil sensor from a yellow wire nothing coming out, but it seems I am using more oil.

thanks for the tip

It's not that uncommon tbh, the cheaper the switch, the more likely it will happen

Very cheap parts giving out that bad to were oil is purring out i was very lucky with our car thats all i can say i dont know why i even was looking under the car at that time but it yeh it was just luck

My Volvo xc90 2005 got a problem it massage no oil pressure stop safely any one let me know please what should i do

Thank u