Oil Pressure at 7 psi during flight

[Palle]

Was out flying today, a hot day in S. California. 5200 rpm, 3,500 ft. Oil Temp 234F, Oil Pressure a steady 62 psi. Flew about 20-30 mins in this configuration. Then reduced throttle to about 4200 rpm and started a descent. A little while after I noticed Oil Pressure showed 7 psi (Oil Temp still good at 234F). I increased throttle and shortly thereafter the Oil Pressure returned to around 62 psi and stayed in that area for the remainder of the flight including the landing pattern. I have had this same issue on 2 other flights, and it seams that on those 2 other flights it also happened when throttle was reduced although I cant remember for sure.  

 

I searched this forum and found talk about other OP issues caused by poor grounding of the OP sender. So my question is, could the problem I describe be caused by a grounding issue of the OP sender? Any other cause you can think of?

 

By the way this is on a 2009 Sportcruiser with 175 hours.

 

Thanks for your help.

palle

 

 

[Anticept]

7psi is a very low reading that can be caused just by alternator noise. Some senders read voltage (which would bounce all over the place from noise), others read amperage in the milliamp range, which can easily be caused by electrical fields alone inducing current on the wires.

 

Check the ground, then consider the sender. The ground fix takes a few minutes to confirm, the sender can be expensive, so eliminate the simple stuff first.

[FlyingMonkey]

Yeah, sounds like a poor ground and/or a sender failing. I had similar problems on my CT, my sender was showing 10psi or so intermittently.

[Palle]

Anticept, MrMorton and Roger: thanks for your reply on the Oil Pressure issue. I will show to my A&P on monday.

 

100Hamburger: it was an 85F day at 5200 rpm, 2 blade Sensenich prop. Compared to your numbers the Oil Temp of 234F is too hot and OP of 62 psi too high. Should I be concerned?, and if so what should be done?

 

Thanks,

Palle

[Anticept]

It is one of three things;

replace the $35 sender

Labor . That is the expensive part!

[Tom Baker]

Anticept, MrMorton and Roger: thanks for your reply on the Oil Pressure issue. I will show to my A&P on monday.

 

100Hamburger: it was an 85F day at 5200 rpm, 2 blade Sensenich prop. Compared to your numbers the Oil Temp of 234F is too hot and OP of 62 psi too high. Should I be concerned?, and if so what should be done?

 

Thanks,

Palle

I wouldn't be concerned. You are after all flying a different airplane than 100hambuger is, and the numbers are within limits.

[Palle]

Thanks Tom, yes my airplane is a Sportcruiser.

[Tom Baker]

Thanks Tom, yes my airplane is a Sportcruiser.

Palle, did you come out to the Midwest LSA expo a few years ago.

[Palle]

Yes I was there Tom, and we met. Thanks for remembering.