97 Tahoe oil pressure.

[TempestT-37]

Sometimes when I am at a stoplight my check gauges light will come on and the oil gauge is down to around 0. I give it a little gas and the pressure goes up and the light goes off. The odometer shows 196k, I did an oil change 700 miles ago and the oil level is still good.

I am thinking I should start using thicker oil, I have been using 10w40. What oil weight should I use?

 

[SunlitComet]

10w-30. verify with a mechanical gauge and replace defective parts a required. note that low oil pressure should not make a check engine light come on. the oil pressure is not monitored by the pcm. perhaps you meant the check gauges light.

 

[TempestT-37]

Your are right meant check gauges light. Corrected it in OP. Thanks

 

[Rob Scariano]

Sometimes when I am at a stoplight my check gauges light will come on and the oil gauge is down to around 0. I give it a little gas and the pressure goes up and the light goes off. The odometer shows 196k, I did an oil change 700 miles ago and the oil level is still good.

I am thinking I should start using thicker oil, I have been using 10w40. What oil weight should I use?

At the end of the day, I run 10w-40 in the summer, 10w-30 in the winter. Runs fine, and it did improve OP slightly. 10w-30 is recommended year round but 10w-40 isn't going to hurt it in the slightest bit. Even 20w-50 is fine. I've done it on quite a few vehicles and never had one single problem. You could even run straight weight 50 in the summer with 20w-50 in the winter.

These old Tahoes are notorious for having low pressure. I agree with the other post. I'd stick a manual gauge on it. The factory gauges aren't extremely accurate.

It's a pretty big job to replace the oil pump. Hopefully the manual gauge will reflect an acceptable pressure level. Don't fear the oil though. It's not going to hurt it.

 

[SunlitComet]

who decided that old tahoes have low oil pressure?