Looking for some advice. I was driving home today and the indicator displayed an error message that showed an oil can and read "failure indicator". The oil pressure gauge then dropped immediately to zero. About thirty seconds later the gauge went back to normal. The oil level is fine.

Has anyone else seen anything like this? I'm thinking that this is a sensor problem because the car continues to run fine - no overheating, smoke, etc. Does anyone think that it could be an oil pump? How many oil pumps do these cars have anyway?

I'm trying to decide if I can/should drive the car tomorrow. Any advice/help is greatly appreciated.

 

The oil pressure sender is known to fail. Item #45 on the picture....

It also happen to me and to fix it, select neutral , switch the ignition off and restart the engine and everything was back to normal.... Of course I later replace the pressure switch....

 

Thanks. I searched forum but I must have had a typo or something. Another search revealed a few threads on this topic. Sounds like it is either the electrical connection or the pressure sender. Either way it is unlikely that the oil pressure is actually going to zero instantaneously.

I'll check the connection and order the switch if it occurs again.

 

I replaced the oil pressure sensor....the part is cheap. Not sure on the labor..I did it when the engine was coming out of the car anyway...

Jeff

 

move the wires connected to it.. sometimes they are loose... and cause the problem...

 

happened to me when i bought my car, ont eh way home swapped the oil pressure sending unit 60$ labor is more expensive though the bill the dealership got was roughly jsut under 600$

 

If you want to do it yourself you can lower the engine about 3 to 4 inches. It make the job a lot easier...see link for how to drop the engine...https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...tt-engine.html

 

As said. Oil sender unit. Same issue, I replaced mine and it works now.

 

I read through the service manual and the information in your replies (thanks!). It looks like a reasonable DIY job, although it is in a tight spot. I think I'll try it by the book at first and lower the engine if needed. Seems like a common failure so I'll try to create a DIY with pictures.

 

if you look around the site there is a way to do this with about 2ft of long extensions a univsersal and a crows foot that you dont ahve to remove much at all but it is working blind... on a pressurized oil sensor

 

Thanks for the tip. I could see how that could be done, it is a straight line to the sensor. Getting the new sensor lined up and the threads started must an absolute pain.

I feel like removing a few pieces wouldn't be much more difficult, but I haven't tried.

 

Mine has this problem as well. Apparently Porsche Dealer has been over it 3 times and couldn't find the problem. They were ready to pull out the dash. Seems now that maybe they didn't know what they were doing.

Tell you one thing, I'm not spending $600+ to fix this thing. Certainly a DIY for me!

 

Solution :

last week while driving the 997 s 2005 I realised a warning ( oil temp. indicator faulty ) on the Dashboard screen. I first though it might be a fuse issue. However I did a reseach and found out that its a much simpler fix. Electric conflict caused the dash to remember and save the warning. Thats it, It was NOT a sensor 300-600$ issue . The oil temp. guage went unresponsive and Oil level indicator was also faulty. At that point I felt alittle sad. However I removed the - wire attached to the battery only for about 30 seconds and replaced it back. All was gone and I was back with the gauges working as new. I am glad it was only an electronic conflict and nothing more. One more thing , once the battery is connected you will have a PSM warning. Dont worry it will go off shortly after you drive it. note: its a manual trans 997 S. Hope it works for you

 

I don't mean to resurrect this old post...but had an issue similar. I didn't replace the unit, but noticed that simply seperating the wires within the black groment fixed the issue entirely. Unit works perfectly.

 

That reminds me that I need to fix mine as well.....heart skips a beat every time the gauge drops to 0.
Now that Ive lowered the engine to replace the water pump, this hopefully is an easy DIY.
Id be interested to see your write up.