As I pulled into the walmart parking lot I noticed my car was leaking oil horribly bad! I checked the level and it was almost dry. It is leaking from a sensor above the oil filter (oil pressure sensor?). The plastic casing gets pushed back and oil pours out. Is this the oil pressure sensor? Is it easy to replace (plug n play)? Anything special I should know for this repair? Thanks for the help. Dan

 

super easy. just unscrews, and put the new one in. im not 100% sure, but the gaskets also go bad too.

 

The sensors are often damaged when changing the oil filter and cause leaks. If you are using a filter wrench when doing an oil change just be careful not to slip and hit the sensor.

 

Had this happen to mine by the lovely people that work for lube express. Just see if walmart has the Oil Pressure Sending unit and using a pair of vice grips twist off the old one and put the new one on snug.

 

Thanks, haven't done an oil change lately so I didn't bump it, I'll post pictures later tonight when I get home (can't from my phone) but I'm sure if I replace the sensor it will fix the problem. The sensor hasn't worked since I got the car so I should replace it anyway.

 

well if your going to drive it home put about 5qts of oil in it!

 

No I gotta fix it in the parking lot cause the oil pours out way too fast.

 

so here is what it looks like in place:

and this is what it looks like when I turn on the engine and it starts pouring out oil:

It pops out...

 

25 bucks at autozone, just looked it up for you on their website

 

just installed the new sensor and stopped the oil leak but now my oil pressure gauge doesn't work. well, it never really worked, it just read around 80ish the whole time, but now the needle sits completely horizontal and gives me no reading at all. Any ideas?
Thanks

 

hmm, mine was off and on so i knew it was going. i would get 40psi then it would spike to 80psi. It now sits at 40psi on idle and 55-60 upon driving. dont know why yours isnt working. When unplugged it should read 0 and when just grounded it should read 80.

 

did you make sure it was the right sensor? some vehicles (not sure if yours is one of them) have 2 different guage clusters, one with a guage and one with a light, each has a matching sensor.

 

^x2
Sounds like you got the one for the idiot light cluster. It is just a pressure switch that turns the light on when it gets too low.
The one for the gauge gives resistance at different pressures, and thats what makes the needle move.

 

wish that was my worst problem.

 

I think that is the only thing left on my cherokee that doesn't leak!!!