[junglejustice]

Hey guys! Need some help please; I have questions related to three old topics on a 1995 – 5-speed manual car, but I can’t get my fingers on quick-info right now...

1) I understand that on the automatic cars, you have to step on the brake to remove the key for example; similar but different issue here that plaques many a 164… This is a MANUAL car, but I can’t remove the key without the manual-over-ride button under the steering column that you have to pull simultaneously. What’s the fix?

2) Oil pressure always shows great when warm, good while driving, but poor at idle after the motor is warm. I have had a manual, external gauge on it and it is perfect under all conditions and I have installed a new sender. I know that there was a fixed discussed somewhere; I just can find it right now.

3) I read somewhere about the airbag lights going on at 100K miles or something; there is a fix – any help in the right direction would be very much appreciated!

 

[goats]

FIxes

1. remove the shroud on the column that hides the mechanism for the key removal solenoid. There is a little plunger that you can pull down to remove the key. Put a tie-wrap around the shaft of that little plunger (it runs vertically) so that the plunger can;t retract

2. Differences on the fix and its effectiveness. Search the archives for 'oil pressure sender fix' or similar and you will find it. Entails drilling a 0.062" hole on the back can to relieve some backpressure on the sender diaphram

3. Search 'dimtey' as poster for this fix-- or Marelli tester. These are the only ways I know of to fix this

Cheers goats

 

[AR4me]

JJ,

1. I think that is how it is supposed to be on them. If I remember correctly my low miles 1995 Q from years ago was that way (assuming I understood your question correctly).

2. That's normal, gauge shows little pressure at warm idle - anything else and I WOULD be worried Don't worry but know how to tell a real problem (low pressure warning light) as I'm sure you know. I would not mess around with drilling holes in senders, etc. - waste of time IMHO.

Jes

 

[junglejustice]

Thanks guys!

Jes, welcome back! A bit jet-lagged...!?

 

[Del]

"I would not mess around with drilling holes in senders, etc. - waste of time IMHO"

Suit yourself, but for me, it saved me about $90 when I did it. The "drilled" senders have worked fine now for about 10 years on the 91S and 94LS. Match that. But then again, it's your money.

Costs nothing to try it, except when Richard2 did it, something went wrong. Well, nothing is perfect. To preclude his problem of leaking oil from the hole, I threaded in a small brass fitting in the first one and installed a plastic overflow tube. Nothing ever came out. The second one is still fine with just the very small vent hole.

 

[goats]

Ive tried it too

Drilling the hole in the OP sender---and no real change for me , but no oil leak either I just put a piece of tape over the hole!

Wonder if there are maybe more than one failure mode for this low output?

I can;t say for sure but I would not be surprised; in my humble opinion the sender is not of a very high quality (this is the replacement one I am referring to not the original VEGLIA sender thats very heavy, my GTV has that one and its good as gold)

 

[Del]

The ones I fixed are the original VEGLIA.

 

[goats]

thats interesting

I had an old Veglia one that somehow came my way with a snapped off threaded end (I think the car the engine was in got hit or something) ; this was 20+ years ago. I took it apart and was astonished to find a real ?Bourdin? tube in there that drove a miniature gear which in turn moved a wiper on a wire-wound potentiometer. It was really a nice piece, the inner case was brass and the gears/etc were brass IIRC. It was quite heavy.
Years later I bought a few from IAP and the like and they are very different. --The IAP one weighed about half the other one and the construction was not the same. I have since replaced about 2 or 3 IAP type ones (and drilled hole as recommended) with no real difference in output readings. So maybe there are several failure modes, one of which is readily fixed by releaseing the internal 'tampenade' in the diaphragm? Interesting to note that on the ones I drilled a hole in, there was not even tiny spurt of oil out, leading me to believe that there was little if any 'pressure' to relieve. But on the flip side, drilling the hole is an easy thing as Del points out and appeals to my wallet!!! Given it takes no more than 5 minutes to do why not give it a try?

PS I bought 2 senders from alfahill but havent tried them yet

 

[Gubi]

Regardless, if he's got a brand new sensor in there drilling the hole won't fix the problem. The hole can help with older sensors that have started to read low due to oil leaking around the internal seals. If it's a new sender and it's still reading too low vs. a manual gauge, it's either a bad sender or a problem with the gauge.

Bear in mind the gauges don't seem to be particularly accurate even when working as well as possible. On the Milano V6 if the gauge shows ANY pressure at hot idle that's probably the best you're going to do. Not sure about the 24V but I'd suspect similar. Just make sure the warning light sender works.

 

[Del]

"The hole can help with older sensors that have started to read low due to oil leaking around the internal seals"

Well, that's the whole point of the exercise. I just didn't see any point in throwing out the old low reading senders if they could be "fixed". Worked for me.

Obviously the new ones are built differently.

 

[elite38868]

I bought a more robust sender from someone on the bb which is supposed to be superior to the stock sender. We'll see how it holds up.

 

[alfahill]

Oil pressure guage senders

That must have been me who sold the more robust oil pressure senders. The one I have in my 164S is going strong after 15 years. I sold all the ones I had back when I first mentioned them, but I picked up more if others are interested. They are $30 plus shipping.

 

[aralfa8589]

I have one of Alfahill's senders and it works like a champ! Reads the same pressures as my mechanical gauge.

 

[elite38868]

Yeah I might be buying more! for the rest of the Alfas