i got a 97 turboed civic. just had a new oil pressure gauge installed and when the car is cold i have about 25lbs of pressure but when the car warms up i have 0 lbs!!! car runs fine idles great no ticks or knocks... any ideas on what could be causing this would be greatly appreciated!!!! thanks

 

If you really had 0 psi, you would have the OEM Oil light coming on. That light does work, correct?

What brand gauge is installed? When it is reading 0 psi, and you shut the car off, does the needle move at all? Mine will go past the "0" mark when the car is off and the keys are out of the ignition.

 

my OEM light does come on after about a half hour of driving it. the guage brand is glowshift. and yes when i shut the car off its below 0

 

Could be worn bearings or turbo then. You could consider a heavier oil. Civics don't have hydraulic lifters so you won't hear valve noise due to low oil pressure. Just the bottom end will blow up without warning.

 

alright what would you recomend for oil? i'm running 10-40w now

 

I have glowshift gauges(My MX6 GT Turbo) as well and during very hot days, oil pressure will show almost 0. This happens only on such a hot day. Normally, pressure doesn't get any lower than 10. I'm running 5W-30 Mobil 1. I think the gauge is just not very accurate.

 

yah i think your theory is correct because my car runs like a champ i think ill buy a new guage before i do anything. do you recomend synthetic or regular motor oil????

 

I don't use regular oil as mine engine 1.6 with intake and manfoid burns oil so I keep adding half oil each time the tranny clicks and make it strange to shift. It's annoying

 

Turbo cars should run synthetic oil. For non-turbo vehicles, it depends upon how many miles are diven per year. For example, if someone puts only 5000 miles per year, then the oil will be synthetic and get changed once per year (as long as it doesn't see very short trips and few long trips).

 

If it burns alot of oil, you shouldn't waste your money on synthetic oil, especially if the engine isn't turbo-charged.