OT - Mazda MX5 oil pressure gauge

[Ozric-Al]

Bit random I know - my housemate decided to take leave of his senses while I was away and expecting to come home to find a late Astra, Focus or Golf sitting on the drive instead I found a 91J Plate MX5!!

Have to say it's not bad considering the age and mileage but not having owned a car with an oil pressure gauge before something is worrying me.

The gauge goes up to about 80 lb/in2 on start up but then settles at about 50 after the choke has switched off. It then fluctuates dependant on speed going as low as 30 at tickover. Is this normal or a sign of trouble ahead? I assume that the oil pump must be powered by the pulleys hence the fluctuations but am not sure.

I really hope he hasn't bought a lemon.

 

[skate2create]

how long before he reverses into the wall or tree outside your house then Al

Dan

 

[Ozric-Al]

lol! He's being unusually careful I have to say. He's even talking about cleaning it at the weekend!!!

"Well I'll be done seen 'bout everything, when I see an elephant flyyyyyy!"

"What's the word on the street Huggy Bear? "

http://www.billhicks.com/ New Ozrics Site now up: - http://www.ozrics.com/

 

[Tom]

Sounds right.

50 cold idle, 20-30 hot idle, 50 when running.

 

[Ozric-Al]

Cool - cheers Tom.

"What's the word on the street Huggy Bear? "

http://www.billhicks.com/ New Ozrics Site now up: - http://www.ozrics.com/

 

[Mickbo]

Nothing to worry about matey, perfectly normal

I have a Jap Import MX5 which is a Eunos Roadster, mine is in KG/CM2 though but basically behaves the same, you will find that once warmed up it will sit quite low on tickover (Mine shows around 1kg/cm2)

Apparently Mazda removed these on the later car through people contacting them on a regular basis thinking the car had problems so the later ones just had a straight forward gauge which shows if you have oil pressure or not!

Tell your mate to pop over to the MX5 Owners Club Forum for plenty of sound advice, the only thing I would get him to check is the Crank as the very early ones had a short nose crank (prone to failure) but I think 91 is close to the changeover for the long nose crank, IIRC the short nose crank has a 4 slot pulley and the long nose crank has the 8 slot pully

Oh by the way if your wondering why I'm lurking on here, I'm a friend of Ian Geforce and he pointed this out to me and asked if I knew

HTH

 

[Ozric-Al]

Cheers Mick - you got a web addy for that site chap? I'll pass it onto him. Ta.

"What's the word on the street Huggy Bear? "

http://www.billhicks.com/ New Ozrics Site now up: - http://www.ozrics.com/

 

[Mickbo]

Hi Ozric-Al, Sorry for the delay in getting back to you (I haven't got as much time on my hands as Ian Geforce)

Yep the address is http://www.mx5ocforum.co.uk/ You'll find that they're a good bunch probably similar to here and there's loads of info from general maintenance to performance upgrades, also most areas have a monthly meet so he can pop over and meet some fellow 5 ers

 

[Ozric-Al]

Thanks Mick - I'll point him your way.

"What's the word on the street Huggy Bear? "

http://www.billhicks.com/ New Ozrics Site now up: - http://www.ozrics.com/