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Wifey was driving her Jeep today and the oil pressure gauge dropped to zip and the CEL came on. Of course she calls me- "what do I do?". I had checked the oil (and other fluids) Saturday, and all was well. She said she checked oil and it was ok, but she bought 2 qts anyway. I told her to put one in and start the car and see what happened. She did, and said gauge came up to normal, and CEL went off. I told her to put in other qt and come home, now. She said "do you know how hard it is to put oil in the car, with the paper funnel they give you?". So she didn't put the other qt in. A while later she calls again, and says CEL light is on again and gauge is back to zip. I told her to put other qt in and see what happens. She calls back after a while and says the engine is tapping a lot and the CEL is on again and no oil pressure. I told her DO NOT DRIVE IT! I went to get her and took a couple qts of oil with me. I checked it and it was over full. I put 2 qts in, and started it. The gauge came up, and the engine quieted down right away. After about 30 seconds, the gauge dropped to zip, and it started tapping again. Now I got to tow it somehow from West Chester, Pa, back to my house in Wilmington so I can look and see what is wrong. U-Haul says they don't have any tow-dollies available locally, as they are out out in use. What a pain. My budget really sucks right at the moment, so a tow-truck is out of the question. But my biggest concern is -what the heck has gone wrong with the g**d**m engine!

Does it have oil lines that lead to an external oil cooler or filter?

No, It's a 99 with the 4 cyl engine. Nothing fancy or anything added. 100% factory stock.

Oh- a little post-whorin' here, lol. When I went to pick her up, she told me why she had such a hard time putting the oil in. She was putting it in through the dipstick tube! :eek: And here I thought she knew better. At least she didn't put it in the trans! I love my wife dearly, so I didn't make any smart comments about where you put the oil in at. But my tongue sure is sore from biting it! :D :D

Most likely particles clogging the screen. What kind of oil change history has it had?
Do not drive it overfull either, you aerate the oil and lose pressure.

I had something similar happen with my 1990 302 bronco.Oil pressure would die after a minute of running,turn the motor off and restart and the oil pressure was fine for a minute and than would go to zero again.To make a long story short the problem was a FRAM no leak down filter that the check valve must have gone bad because i changed the oil and put a oldstyle FRAM filter on and all was well after that.I was sure the motor would never last after being run without pressure,but that was 10,000 miles ago.Just for curosity to make sure that it was the filter that was the problem i put the old one back on again and the oil pressure did the same thing as before with the oil pressue suddenly dieing.The filter that went bad on me had a thousand miles on it before it acted up like this.

I have also experienced putting synthetic oil in a older motor that had always had mineral oil in it and the detergents in the synthetics washed out the inside of the motor so well that all the crap clogged up the oil pickup

Oil change history hasn't been the best. I don't plan on driving it til I get it home and look at it. I'm sure not driving it with no oil pressure, lol.

At the very least I would drop the oil pan and check out the pick up screen( very easy). Also, the oil filter could be the problem if you use the cheapie filters. Only use fram or mopar.

So what happened David?

Good Luck, I hope it is a minor problem.

Doesn't she know to put the oil in where the "710" cap is? :D

I'm betting the screen is clogged. I had the same problem on a Ranger, couldn't figure it out until I found a hole in the pick up tube. :mad:

A couple years ago, one of my workers girlfreind called and said she had just checked her oil, and there was none in it. He told her to put in a couple quarts. She did, then called back and said there still wasn't any oil. He told her to put a couple more in. She did, then called back and said there STILL isn't any oil in it. That's when I asked him how was she checking the oil. He called her and she said she was looking where you put the oil in and couldn't see any. :rolleyes:

Oil pump screen was getting blocked from crap in the bottom of the oil pan. It seems that the designed location of the drain plug does not allow complete draining of the pan. I left it to drain overnight, and there was still a half inch of crap in the pan. I did a little research on the situation (Thanks, RA!) and found out it is a known issue on the vehicle. It is fixed and everything is A-OK now. No damage to the engine.
But it is still a POS Jeep. Has been since day 1. I have also finally figured out why the gauges would quit working intermittantly. I think I have also fixed the defroster door/lever problem. It has been working for a couple months without falling apart. Now I have to replace the blower switch, as it only has 2 speeds (low & high) that work without holding the knob off the detent.

Yeah, I showed her where you are supposed to put the oil in at. At least she didn't put it in the transmission dipstick tube, lol. That is (one of) the reasons why I usually take care of her car.
Perfboat- The pan was pretty easy to drop. The exhaust pipe was the only thing in the way. Luckily the car isn't that old and the pipe was easy to drop from the manifold.
Damn, Cuda! I was typing my response while you were putting your $.02 in! :D Aren't you supposed to be working somewhere? :eek:

If you had sludge in the pan,you should heat motor up and drain oil again it will help flush sludge out. Also if you have a lot of miles on jeep you should change thermostat. Higher motor temp will help oil clean better. Oil does not clean as well until it gets hot.
Rush

I planned on changing oil/filter again this weekend. The engine always runs right at 210°, and has since new. I couldn't warm up the engine last week w/no oil pressure. :D