oil pressure light and buzzer (alarm)

[monst]

Not a good morning....
 I have an idiot light and an aftermarket oil gauge.
They both T off at the top of the oil filter.....
  This morning, the buzzer and light periodically
began buzzing and blinking; Oil pressure gauge
was reading 60 psi...
   As the ride continued( about 40 miles) the
buzzer and lite went from periodically coming on
to constantly on. It was probably 25 miles into the
trip and I had the pleasure of listening to this constantly.
The oil pressure on the gauge was reading about 40 psi..
    How should I go about trouble shooting this.....
Is it possible the sender is bad?
or perhaps I got to dig through the dash board to
take a hammer to that buzzer (only kidding).

Monst

[Vincent Waldon]

Troubleshooting info here:

http://vincewaldon.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=40&Itemid=28

[monst]

 Thanks for the link... very informative.....
    In the info it talks about the w-terminal on the alternator.
I just replaced the alternator... and  it is charging ok now but...
(also have an ammeter in console) but I did notice that  the needle
is always shaking on the ammeter.
  So my question is this. If I have an erratic signal from
the W terminal.
        Can this cause the warning system to go off?
and How can I test the signal from the W terminal...
I kind am thinking in this direction because that is
the most recent thing I have done to the car.
     The low sender circuit is working. It is either
in the high circuit or this w terminal thingie bob....

thanks! monst.

[bajacalal]

I know this is old but I thought you might learn from my situation.

I have some electrical issues with my 1985 Golf that are exacerbated by the fact that diesel engines vibrate a lot. The electrical connectors vibrate apart. I also get these oil pressure "false alarms." The high pressure sending unit provides a connection to ground when there is sufficient oil pressure. Without a connection to ground, the oil pressure buzzer is activated. I have found that my problem is caused by bad connections at the spade terminal on the sending unit itself (easy to fix) and at the instrument cluster connection to the wiring harness (not so easy to fix).

IMHO this is ridiculous over-engineering. A simple oil pressure gauge with a red "danger" stripe would have been fine.

[8v-of-fury]

IMHO this is ridiculous over-engineering. A simple oil pressure gauge with a red "danger" stripe would have been fine.

Agreed. Every car should have a gauge that displays oil psi.. for those of us who care to know lol

instead.. no lets design a system that notifies the driver when he's on the highway and the problem has already happened.  lol