Riley P

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Jan 11, 2009
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And it was the best thing I ever did! How many of you with C5's are driving with the oil pressure gauge pegged at 80psi? That's what mine was like and I could live with that. The issue I had is early last year if I accelerated hard my gauge dropped to 0psi and my check gauges light would come on and the chime would ding at me. Well, it got worse over the summer to where the gauge would drop when I started to brake, if I hit bumps, if I had been on the highway for a while (couldn't hear it over the exhaust most of the time). It got to the point where sometimes it would just go between 80 and 0, constantly dinging for a minute and and was driving me up the wall. This summer was no exception. Finally today I figured, screw it, and decided to just go through the cowl and get the old sending unit through the top. This was not a light decision. I really struggled over whether to do it the right way which meant removing the intake. I thought about this with the addition of adding a relocation kit but finally figured that the $350 I was quoted to replace the sending unit (not including the purchase and installation of a +$200 relocation kit) was not worth preserving the cowl that no one ever sees. So, long story short, cutting the cowl cost me $76. Am I happy that I have a hole in the cowl? Meh, not really. But am I happy driving a car that does not ding any more? Heck Ya!!! Plus, now I have $500 in my pocket (wait, no, that was used to buy a harmonic balancer). Plus, if the sending unit ever goes again, it will be a 15 minute job to replace it. Good enough.
 
HA! I am a cheater! You should see what I am going to cut off next to get the harmonic balancer on! I figure I'll go through the back of the engine:D

And yes, going through the cowl to get at the oil sending unit is quite a divided issue. I have heard quite a few people do it but anytime you cut something out makes people cringe (including myself). At least I cut it myself so I could take all the time I wanted. I put plates under the cowl to keep from contacting the wires and hoses. The edges were sanded after cutting and now it's done. THAT is what makes me happy.
 
I used a dremel with a cut off wheel. I had steel under the cowl so I wouldn't cut any hoses or wires. Where I couldn't get the dremel in, I had cut it with a plexi glass jig-saw blade. It took a while but was worth the extra time. Afterwards I replaced the cut out piece and used black duct tape to cover the whole thing. Clear silicon would have worked great but never thought of it.
 
Insert clapping here! HA!

Just kidding. Not too big of a deal Rod. I should be able to give you a hand with it. I would suggest Part Source for the sending unit. They were cheaper and the body is brass which is the one that everybody wants. I have teflon tape, duct tape, and a dremel and stuff. Let me know when and we can see if we can get our schedules lined up.
 
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