MessyJesse

Please tell me if my logic is correct here.

My 96 has the oil pressure gauge pegged past 80 all the time. I figured this is a bad sender. Replaced it and same thing.

I tested grounding the terminal on the connector, and my pressure goes to 0. This tells me that the system works by how well grounded the signal is, and that the gauge is fine, and the wiring is fine, could either be the connector not making contact or a bad sender. I put a test light on the new sender to the single pin on the sender and nothing with engine both off and idle. Not a ground. I then took the old one, stuck the threaded end on the negative battery terminal, and used my test light again and nothing, no ground there.

So it looks like I'm just unlucky and have 2 dead senders. Is my reasoning correct? If so, is there a preferred brand of sender?

Thanks!

dave1123

One word....Mopar! My XJ was reading 10 psi any time it was running. I put a $73 Mopar sender in it and it reads 45 on startup, 35 hot, and 45 at anything over 1000 rpm when hot. BUT mine is a 2000 with the digital sender. Your 96 is only a 1-wire sender, correct? Your gauge is shunt wired and the sender is one leg of a delta circuit. If you see any voltage on that wire, it will be less than 1 volt, if any at all. It is a ground, but a resistor ground.

downs

Spend the money on the Mopar part. I got mine from local dealer for 53 dollars. I had a standard motor products unit in there. Bad out of the box. Also make sure you're getting the right sender, the one for the gauge cluster XJ and not the idiot light cluster.

MessyJesse

Turns out it was the sender. New one, OMIX-ADA 17219.13, dead on arrival. Bought a Mopar part and it worked right away. $30 something on Amazon. I'm thrilled to not have something wrong with the gauge or wiring.