Fraley

I know this topic gets beat to death and I've done a lot of research on it but I can't seem to find a definite answer to my actual question. I install a AEM 100 psi oil pressure gauge with the sensor straight to the block where the OEM sensor is located with a 1/8 BSP to 1/8 NPT adapter that I picked up from O'riley's. Here are my current numbers

Cold Start Idle - 90-100 psi
Warm Idle - 12-20 psi
Above 3K - 72-82 psi

That all seems normal right? Well my question is, I was driving the other day I'd say for about an hour straight in stop and go traffic and my oil pressure at idle kept steadily dropping. I think the lowest it got was 8 psi. Of course as soon as I gave it gas and started moving it jumped back up to between 72-82 psi. Is that normal? What is the absolute lowest it should read? Does it really matter at idle or should I be more concerned while I am driving under a load? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

ckowalc

Oil pressure will drop with oil temperature. It would be helpful to have both.

This thread has a good amount of discussion (maybe not answers though) on this topic and a few people in it have seen single digit oil pressure at idle.
https://www.s2ki.com/forums/s2000-ra...adings-978141/

Jaspah

Honda manual says:

rrounds

You don't say what year or miles on the car, that would help. I live in Calif. so my low temps. are around 0F(once or twice a year) and I run 10/40 high mileage in my '06 with 130k miles. Very pleased with the UOA's and my S still doesn't use any oil in my 7500 mile OCI(oil change interval). Just changed the oil last week and it was down just one X from full on the dip stick after 7500 miles. Moving up one grade to a 10/40 or 15/40 won't hurt a thing and will boost your low speed oil pressure some and will help keep the pressure up as the rpm's go up.

I started using 10/40 when my '06 got around 45k miles on it. There was a bunch of engine falures on here a few years ago and thats when I started looking at my oil pressure. I noticed my idle pressure was a little low from what the book called for, so I moved up a grade and never looked back. We go on 600 mile day drives that can put lots of heat into the oil and my pressure holds steady as the heat goes up.

ROD

Fraley

My bad I drive a 2004 with 141,000 miles

Charper732

your oil pressure is way low if you are seeing 12 psi at idle.

my 05 is at 110k miles. The lowest pressure I see with the car HOT is 23psi and I run a 19 row oil cooler so that will drop my pressure atleast 3-5psi. anything above 3k is 88-90psi

windhund116

What weight oil are you running?

Thanks!

rrounds

I would use a 10/40 or even the 15/40(like Delo ,Rotella or Delvac) and see what your oil pressure is. Since its starting to warm up I would try the 15/40 first.
Both are great oils and wont m/t your wallet.
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Shell-Rot...-gal./14958327
and
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Chevron-D...16-tOd9K8dy_14
and
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Mobil-Del...16-tOd9K8dy_14

ROD

Fraley

I'm currently running Castrol Synthetic 10w-30

I didn't think it was good to run Rotella in our cars? Do you have experience with those 3 oils?

rrounds

Rotella and Delo(15/40) is all I ran in my old R6. I run M1 high mileage 10/40 in my S with a can of MoS2. We have a little more miles on our S than you but if I had to change oil on one of our trips and they had Rotella 15/40 but not the M1 high mileage, the Rotella 15/40 would go in and I wouldn't think twice about it. If it can take the abuse of my 14k+ rpm R6 it will work just fine in my S. Plus Rotella works great in 500+ hp, 2000 LBS FEET of Tq turbo charged diesel engines, it will work just fine in the S. Rotella and Delo are very robust oils.

ROD