Oil Gauge broken?

[basmith]

My oil gauge is starting to act like a spedometer. When I speed up it rises to H and when I slow down or stop it goes pretty close to L. Does anyone know what the problem is? It sounds like the sensor but just wanted to make sure before I bring it in to the dealership and look stupid. Anyone else have this problem? Thanks for the help.

[Dude Boy]

This is pretty much normal for the Tundra. At least about everybody's does it, and the owner manual shows that oil pressure near "L" is in the normal range.

[Cloud9]

Oil pressure increases as the pump spins at higher RPMs. Your Oil pressure going up IS totally normal as you speed up, and it should drop when you drop the RPMs. So you're good to go.

I hate seeing it on low, too though, and wish Toyota have gone the route of putting the actual P.S.I. on the guage instead of Low and High. I don't know if low is below what it should actually be or not. That's what it makes you think at first. They probably should've put the L lower than it is, it gives you a false sense of insecurity. It beats an idiot light, but not by a whole bunch.......

[TundRoss]

I agree. since the oil pump is geared directly to the engine, the faster the engine spins, the higher the oil pressure. You'll also notice that when the oil is cold, thick, and hard to move you get a higher reading than when it's hot, thin and flows easily.

[basmith]

My gauge just now started to fluctuate with speed changes. It used to stay around H all the time. I guess it just needed some time to adjust. Thanks for clearing this up guys. I'm glad I didn't bring it in to the dealership.

[Mr. Ving]

How many quarts are you guys using?

[nhparrot]

Just about 6.5 qts on a oil/filter change on the V8.

[cslinger]

The gauge in the Tundra acts like a real measure of the oil pressure at any given moment and at times like idle all trucks oil pressure drop and it is natural for it to flutuate while driving.

Other manufactures just use a different kind of gauge that is basically a oil pressure is good or oil pressure is bad kind of thing.

It is natural for the Tundra and it will drop to a little above the L when at idle etc.

[Lazy Ace]

It could be worse guys. At least the Tundra doesn’t have a low oil pressure-warning bell like the old Kenworth I used to drive had. Man, every time you dumped the clutch this bell would go off very loudly.

In the winter, driving between Salt Lake and Rock Springs, you’d be damned near deaf when you pulled in!

[Tundrav8yamaha]

i was about to say the same thing the gauge measures low to high pressure andread's funny took that in first mo i had my tundra was told te same thing its a normal byproduct......

[akauth]

Since I just put 5w30 in and put in a much larger filter I notice that my oil pressure gauge went from touching the second mark with 10w30 synthetic when idling (air off and hot) to halfway between the L mark and the second mark when idling and hot.

Also at 60 mph, it used to be above the middle of the gauge when running at speed and now it's almost exactly in the middle of the range when running at speed.

I looked up the required pressures in the manual.

At idle:

the minimum pressure is 29 kPa or 4.2 psi.

At 3,000 rpm:

the pressure range is 294 kPa - 588 kPa or 43 - 85 psi


Alan