My truck only has an idiot light. I'm considering options for adding a gauge.

How accurate are the SR5 senders/gauges compared to aftermarket half sweeps? And how do they both compare to mechanical gauges?

 

Well they say mechanical is the best due to the fact you can see the acctual PSI in oil pressure and reilability.... its really up to you... it may cost alot and be a pain to repair the stock gauge but toyota put their oil guage on there from the factory and its just as good. If the gauge goes out i'd repair it.... OEM toyota is the recommended way to go by me I've had lots of trucks with the original oil guages with 200-300-400k miles and it worked fine.....

 

Its my understanding that the 3.0 holds a sort of low to mid oil pressure.Mine holds at about middle of gauge on the highway with 233,000 miles,at idle it reads lower.

 

I use to have an aftermarket guage pod installed with a volt meter, water temp, and oil pressure gauge, installed on the pillar...

I ended up ditching it for an SR5 gauge cluster swap, which had all the same gauges in it, it's just MUCH more clean, and now I don't hit my head on a gauge pod when I get out of the truck


BEFORE:










AFTER:








it's just so much more clean, and everything's accurate Toyota OEM stuff, so no problems

 

Thats the same exact setup on my SR5 4Runner.Where does your oil pressure guage read idling in neutral?

 

on the OEM cluster?

depends on the temp of the motor

when cold at first startup, it's over the half way. once warmed up, it's set at about 1/4 the way

but this is also on a freshly rebuilt 22re with less than 4k miles on it

 

Hmmm...my old motor does same thing,when its cold reads slightly past half,when warmed up good it reads between 1/4 and 1/2.Guess thats the norm.

 

Oil is "thicker" when cold, so you get higher pressure at startup.

Here is a lengthy argument for using oils that are lightest when cold: http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/faq...=haas_articles

I don't know enough to have an opinion on that guy's take.

 

my stock sr5 oil pressure gauge sits at 0 most of the time.... No accurate.

And I like being able to see a number, not "normal".

 

Yeah,a number of about 35 or 40 huh

 

I agree with you 100% there. Not only are the stock gauges vague, they're very slow to respond to changes. I much prefer to be able to look down and say, "oh hey, my oil pressure is at 22psi", rather than "on hey, my oil pressure is around that one mark, and if I rev it, it sort of creeps up to that other mark".

 

A little off topic, but where's the oil sending unit for the idiot light? I think mine is bad or disconnected.

Also, is this the same unit you have to replace to install a pressure gauge?

 

Haha, thats so true!

I feel the same way about the temp gauge, because we all know our stock temp gauges are just

 

It's a few inches below the oil filter. Yep, that's where you put the sending unit for a gauge.

 

Looks like an SR5 cluster swap won't provide what I want. I'm leaning toward a mechanical gauge with good line (not nylon). Any suggestions for cheap sources of braided line?