Hi all,

I've just swapped out my old pinto for a red top, i've removed the VDO sender from the pinto and fitted it to the red top, 5 bar gauge/ sender, 3 terminal sender.

When i turn ignition on the warnining light comes on and the gauge goes to 0 bar, turn the engine over on starter and the warning light goes out and the gauge goes off the scale. I thought i may have the wires the wrong way round so reversed them with the same result. I've tried runing a wire from earth terminal on sender to battery -ve, same result. When i remove the earth wire and turn igniition on the warning light doesn't come on and the gauge goes of the scale.

Any thing else i can check???

Thanks

Hi Sandy,

i did the same thing with my Redtop last year. I fitted an aftermarket oil press gauge with electronic pick which fitted in behind the water pump.
My gauge did the same as yours and went straight upto to full and hardly ever dropped below.
Fact is that the electronic senders are pants and give poor signals out.

Mark@MAC#1 fitted mine and mentioned that he thought that there was too much vibration or interference for them to work properly so i then fitted and mcechanical version from ebay and never looked back

Some Vauxhalls came with oil pressure gauges rather than the normal warning lights (Nova SR (mk only 1), GTE, GSI are the ones i know of, im sure there are more), maybe a GM sender might work?

[Edited on 1/6/11 by loggyboy]

Some Cavaliers and Calibra's had a two-guage pod mounted inthe centre console, for oil pressure and battery. They only came on specific models and were becomming a bit rare to find, but mine always read spot on with OE senders.

Think they were VDO units, but a quick eBay search chucked up these results;
Calibra oil & battery gauges | eBay UK
vauxhall calibra oil volt gauges | eBay UK
Vauxhall Vectra/Calibra Volt and Oil Gauges in Surround | eBay UK

Maybe try to find an OE sensor, or grab one of the OE guages and adapt to suit a single pod/fascia?

See this post it's sort of the same as yours with some questions and answers. Hope it helps.

http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/viewthread.php?tid=153566

http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/viewthread.php?tid=149269

Thanks for replies gents, got it working now, i fitted a mechanical gauge 60 psi cold idle, 85psi cold with a bit of revs. Refitted sender and getting 4 bar cold idle (60psi) and 2 to 2.5 bar hot idle (30/ 35psi)

thanks for all tips