Fitting oil pressure gauge to a Z3 HELP...........!!!!

[Dakar Z3]

Has anyone fitted an electric oil pressure gauge to a Z3?

We already have an oil temp gauge fitted as standard in the main instrument cluster but I want to fit a pressure gauge, can this be done, where do I connect into the block, what will I need?

if anyone can advise or make suggestions, all hints or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Dakar

 

[t-tony]

If my memory serves me right I seem to think that @g8jka fitted one. Could be wrong.

Tony.

 

[Althulas]

This thread may be useful https://www.zroadster.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=37830 but you can buy a kit from LeatherZ that has a distribution block that bolts where the pressure sender switch is https://www.leatherz.com/products/z3-oil-pressure-gauge-kit

 

[gookah]

I did an oil temperature and oil pressure gauge on mine.
With the temperature sensor I drilled and tapped the oil filter housing so it actually reads the temp of hot flowing oil, rather than putting it in the sump plug.
The oil pressure sensor is fitted in the side of the filter housing,
There is already the standard BMW one in there, which you remove and fit the new sender using a tee piece, then refit the original back in the end of the tee. See last photo.
Easier if you take the filter housing off which can be done without having to remove the Inlet manifold, Then you can also replace the filter housing gasket which will fail at some point anyway.





See below from my thread:

There is already a temperature sensor and oil pressure sensor in the housing,
The temperature is the one on the front face at the top, and the pressure sensor is on the side of the housing that faces the rear of the car.

The new oil pressure sensor will just fit into a tee, branched off the side of the oil filter housing.


However with the oil temperature, if that's fitted using a tee, it means it sits in colder static oil, and its much the same problem if it's fitted in place of the sump plug, so it reads colder than normal so I thought I would experiment

This involved buying a cheap (£15) filter housing:

and after removing a side blanking plug, being able to see where the original temperature sensor is ,as below:

The tip of my finger below shows the route that oil exits the housing from the filter bowl on the right:

Nice flat gasket also:

but it gave me a pointer as to where would be best placed to fit the additional temperature sensor so it's in flowing oil in that particular chamber.

So I drilled and tapped a 1/8 bsp hole to mount it...

Tested and all working:

Be aware that the oil pressure sensor has to be angled a certain way otherwise it fouls on the inlet manifold or block.
In my last photo where the sensor head canister was upwards, it fouled.
So it has now been rotated anticlockwise about 40 degrees so it is facing away from the block.
You can see the original sensors have been refitted, temperature in original location and the pressure at the end of the tee piece.




.

 

[t-tony]

Thank you Pete, maybe I got mixed up on who done it.

Tony.

 

[g8jka]

Thank you Pete, maybe I got mixed up on who done it.

Tony.

No your memory is still there Tony I have also done it, but in a different way to @gookah . Originally I only had the oil temp from the ///M and had a sensor in the sump instead of a plug but it never seemed to be 100% accurate. I changed to some cheap Chinese guages and fitted oil temp, oil pressure and volt gauge. I fitted an oil filter housing adaptor which replaces the original cap on top of the oil filter housing and allows to sensors to be put in the top. The cheap gauges were pretty crap really and never read correctly though, at first I thought it maybe the position of the sensors in the top of the oil filter housing but it was actually the cheap gauges and sensors.

Firstly I just had the one sensor for the oil temp which read better than having it instead of a sump plug, you can see on the left side of the adaptor.

And the cheapo gauges I swapped from the ///M ones.

Last year I got some decent gauges from Prosport, oil temp, oil pressure and air/fuel ratio. These are pretty much 100% accurate and work perfectly with the oil filter housing adaptor.

This is current, both sensor holes being used. One is for oil temp the other for oil pressure. You need the adaptor for the oil pressure no matter where you install it but most gauges will come complete with one. My advice would be to get a decent gauge if you want an accurate reading.

This is the adaptor I use.

A word of caution though, don't fire up the engine when your messing with sensors and forget to put the spare blanking plug back in At least I knew I had decent oil pressure without installing a gauge.

 

[t-tony]

That’s what I remembered Dave! Thank you, sorry for raking up bad memories mate.

Tony.

 

[gookah]

I enjoyed seeing it again......

 

[t-tony]

Thought you might

Tony.

 

[Dakar Z3]

If my memory serves me right I seem to think that @g8jka fitted one. Could be wrong.

Tony.

Thank You

 

[Dakar Z3]

I did an oil temperature and oil pressure gauge on mine.
With the temperature sensor I drilled and tapped the oil filter housing so it actually reads the temp of hot flowing oil, rather than putting it in the sump plug.
The oil pressure sensor is fitted in the side of the filter housing,
There is already the standard BMW one in there, which you remove and fit the new sender using a tee piece, then refit the original back in the end of the tee. See last photo.
Easier if you take the filter housing off which can be done without having to remove the Inlet manifold, Then you can also replace the filter housing gasket which will fail at some point anyway.





See below from my thread:

There is already a temperature sensor and oil pressure sensor in the housing,
The temperature is the one on the front face at the top, and the pressure sensor is on the side of the housing that faces the rear of the car.

The new oil pressure sensor will just fit into a tee, branched off the side of the oil filter housing.


However with the oil temperature, if that's fitted using a tee, it means it sits in colder static oil, and its much the same problem if it's fitted in place of the sump plug, so it reads colder than normal so I thought I would experiment

This involved buying a cheap (£15) filter housing:

and after removing a side blanking plug, being able to see where the original temperature sensor is ,as below:

The tip of my finger below shows the route that oil exits the housing from the filter bowl on the right:

Nice flat gasket also:

but it gave me a pointer as to where would be best placed to fit the additional temperature sensor so it's in flowing oil in that particular chamber.

So I drilled and tapped a 1/8 bsp hole to mount it...

Tested and all working:

Be aware that the oil pressure sensor has to be angled a certain way otherwise it fouls on the inlet manifold or block.
In my last photo where the sensor head canister was upwards, it fouled.
So it has now been rotated anticlockwise about 40 degrees so it is facing away from the block.
You can see the original sensors have been refitted, temperature in original location and the pressure at the end of the tee piece.




.

 

[Dakar Z3]

Thank you for the detailed information, much needed I can assure you, thank you all for taking time to respond.

Dakar..........

 

[colb]

Old thread on here from when I fitted one in a windscreen pillar pod. Connected to the oil pressure switch with an adapter will have a poke about for the thread. Found my old post over on .org forum here https://www.zroadster.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=37830&p=351353&hilit=oil+pressure+guage#p351353

 

[Dakar Z3]

Old thread on here from when I fitted one in a windscreen pillar pod. Connected to the oil pressure switch with an adapter will have a poke about for the thread. Found my old post over on .org forum here https://www.zroadster.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=37830&p=351353&hilit=oil+pressure+guage#p351353

Thank you for the info.

 

[Dakar Z3]

Thank you for the information, I have a VDO oil pressure gauge and sender, however my VDO sender that was supplied with the gauge only has one connection terminal, where yours on the picture has two, have I been supplied with an incorrect oil pressure sender unit?

Dakar

 

[t-tony]

A question you would be better asking the supplier I reckon John? I would say that the most OP switches I've seen have been single wire connectors.

Tony.

 

[gookah]

I think one is signal and one is earth. maybe ours are suitable for mounting in a plastic enclosure, whereas yours is expected to be in an earthed metal housing?

 

[colb]

Looking at the picture one wire is a Ground the other is the signal wire. I have a different sender on my setup, single sensor wire and the unit is Grounded by a wire attached to the body of the unit, you may achieve a good ground connection depending how you mount it on the car direct to the body of the single wire unit. A bad ground connection will swing the needle on the guage, a good ground will stabalise the needle.

 

[t-tony]

Similarly years ago Radio (head units) used to rely on a good aerial ground to supply the ground for the system.

Tony.