Our 95 4Runner with the 3.0 has about 135K miles on it and runs fine. However, when warm, at idle, it shows little or no oil pressure on the gauge. Rev it to 1500 and it shows reasonable pressure. At 500 rpm it does not.

Anyone have an opinion on this? Is this normal, or does it perhaps indicate problems?

Randy

Looking forward to see what people say about your situation. I too have a 4runner with a 3.0 V6 that indicates little to no pressure at any time except when I start it cold. I think it does occasionally jump up to a normal reading for no apparent reason when warmed up, but it shows a normal reading much more often when it's cold. Even that is erratic though (I think). -- Matt

I got this off the Amsoil web site.

The only time we recommend a 40 weight oil, such as AMSOIL's 10W-40, to a customer in a passenger car or light truck application is if the vehicle's engine is excessively worn and consumes oil at a higher than normal rate or if the vehicle is being used for very severe duty, high load, high temperature applications.

Higher weight oil has bigger molecules and will take up the extra clearance of an older high mileage engine. This will raise the oil pressure. That is if the pump is not worn out.

Read this page, it is from the FSM at the top of this page. If you are going by the factory, tap a mechanical gauge in and see what it says, factory gauges are not very good..

http://personal.utulsa.edu/~nathan-buchanan/93fsm/engine/116oilpress.pdf

x 2.

Is the block metric or NPT ?

Neither, it's BSPT.
Now, paradiseracing.com make an adaptor that lets you keep the stock sensor but includes a 1/8NPT port for aftermarket sensors. (see here http://www.customtacos.com/forum/showthread.php?t=148590&highlight=oil ) <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" />

[quote]Our 95 4Runner with the 3.0 has about 135K miles on it and runs fine. However, when warm, at idle, it shows little or no oil pressure on the gauge. Rev it to 1500 and it shows reasonable pressure. At 500 rpm it does not.

Anyone have an opinion on this? Is this normal, or does it perhaps indicate problems? [quote]


>>>*Low hot idle oil pressure is a warning sign of bearings being worn out.

It is normal for the pressure to then increase with RPM's, also normal for the pressure to be higher when the oil is cold.

We always can hope that it is as simple as a worn out oil pump, I can count the cases of that I know of on the fingers of one hand though...*EB