Idle at 4 psi?
 

I just changed my oil at 1000 miles with Amsoil signature synthetic 0w20, and at the same time installed an oil pressure gauge. Starting up this morning, idle pressure was 90 or so, when driving 3-4krpm around 120. It slowly dropped as the engine warmed up. After a normal drive to work (20 minutes, stop & go traffic, not racing at all), the oil pressure drops to a little less than 5 psi at idle (around 700 rpm). It gets up to 10-20 easily with a little throttle, but geez that seems low. Is this a know issue with these engines? The oil light didn't come on btw...

I've never seen oil pressure idle that low in my car, just my experience.

Cold idle pressure on stock oil fill and Mobil1 is 100+psi (my dual-gauge maxes at 100) for me, and when warmed up fully, around 18-20 psi at idle. Could there be an issue with your pressure gauge install?

Call the service dept. at Toyota they will look at the FSM to see the correct pressure range you should be in.

I don't see how I could have messed up the installation. It's all pre-formed cables. Where is your gauge connected? Mine is at the oil gallery plug on the block. If you're using the same location as the stock oil temp gauge, I think that one reads a little higher maybe

I will be taking the car in next week. They replaced a tire sensor and now there's something rolling around inside the tire, so I'll have them look at the oil pressure too. Thx...

Oil sandwich plate. Someone who has it installed at the same place as you needs to chime in. Definitely seems low though.

Found the pressure specs... I had a low reading in my Land Cruiser then I used a manual gauge to verify. It was fine. You can even rent an oil pressure gauge.

Thanks man! Exactly what I needed! :)

It could also be WHERE you installed the gauge.

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Oil temp when you got to work? These engines make oil hot (even in daily driving conditions). So if you're oil is @ 200F then it will be a tad a thinner bringing it below the 7.3psi @ idle.

But, it's May in Texas. You may consider a 0w-30.

I've got a pressure gauge at home. If it still works (and I can find it), I'll validate the pressure at both locations.

I ordered a BT adapter but it's not here yet so I have no idea what the oil temp is. Outside I want to say it was 80 something degF. Not hot at all by Texas standards.

Thanks for the input :) this forum is awesome

with my oil pressure sender at the oil gallery by the AC. I've only seen my pressure drop to about 4psi when the engine almost stalled(as i came to a stop) after some canyon runs(rpm dropped to 400 maybe). i believe the temp was around 105^c so 221^f at the time, can't remember 100%.

it almost stalled because over time my MAF got too much blow by oil from the crankcase vent(throttle response wasn't the best in low RPM at the time... which i found out later when my car threw a code and wouldn't idle after an ECU reset... and now have both CCV and PCV catch cans)

Was only running 0w-20. put a good 2k miles on the oil after that, sent it in for a UOA and results looked better than the previous UOA. so i'm not worrying about it. running the JRSC as well.

I definitely want to get the dual cans since I'll also be FI but I need some that'll not interfere with either sc I choose