The oil pressure guage on your 2001 chevy silverado drops to zero,what could be the problem?

When Im driving the oil pressure starts gradually dropping to zero. i pull over and turn engine off and wait about 5 min and restart and it goes back up to 40. Is this from the guage or oil pressure sensor or oil pump?The oil pressure guage on your 2001 chevy silverado drops to zero,what could be the problem?
Oil level, pressure sensor and pressure relief valve, blocked oil lines and/or galleries, worn out oil pump. Could even be a blocked oil filter. Change your oil and filter first - it's pretty cheap - then start looking at the pressure relief valve, then the sensor, then the oil pump.





Be careful - you should have at least (it varies from make to make) 15lb of oil pressure at idle, and somewhere around 40 to 60 lb while driving, depending on your engine. Don't let it drop so low before shutting the engine off, or you'll really so some significant damage.





Good luck!The oil pressure guage on your 2001 chevy silverado drops to zero,what could be the problem?
Try the pressure sensor first. It's cheaper, but a pain in the asss to replace.
You got to trust the guage until you know it is bad or wrong, so first check the oil.





Is there a reason that oil maybe doesn't flow back down to the pan from your top end?





Does this have 300,000 miles?
Oil pressures start out high like 100-110 PSI in a cold engine and then drop to 35-45 PSI when it reaches operating temperature of 200F.





If the crankshaft main bearings and connecting rod bearings are very worn the pressure will drop to near zero but you will usually have some lifter noise and will be using (burning) copious amounts of oil between oil changes.





This sounds more like the gauge or sending unit or like some other folks mentioned you may be low a few quarts of oil. If this happens the low oil light usually comes on the dash to alert you that the oil pressure is too low. Not always, however.





Good Luck!
Could be as simple as having a low oil level. Once the oil is circulating there isn't enough. Try checking your oil, if you haven't already.





Good luck!
well does it seem to contunue to run right when the guage goes to zero if so it is the senser if she soundes funny it is the pump
Better check this with a gauge that is known to be accurate.Connect the gauge,find the o.p. sending switch,pull it out of the engine,and connect the gauge here. Run the engine in your driveway,watch the gauge as the engine comes up to operating temperature.Normal oil pressure will drop as the oil heats up.40 is about normal for chevy at180/200 degrees water temperature.Also check the pressure reving up the engine r.p.m. Good Luck.
To be losing that much oil pressure is far-fetched. Rather than throw parts at it to figure it out, this should be diagnosed professionally for a more serious concern. Sounds like the oil pressure sensor could be internally breached (assuming it isn't fully breached to the point that it is leaking oil). This is based on the fact that you don't have a Check Engine Light in your concern. The sensor won't set a code. However, if the oil pressure had dropped to zero, you would also be mentioning one heck of a racket coming from the engine. This sounds entirely electrical and if you decide not to fork over anywhere from 75 to 100 bucks for the diagnostic, you might want to go ahead and drop a 20 and get the oil pressure sensor. Easy enough to replace.





One more thing. As a warranty claims adjuster, I have been seeing lately alot of claims on Chevrolet instrument clusters for guages acting this way. You may want to have this checked out, but it could very possibly be your instrument cluster failing as well. Usually the complaint is on the speedometer, temp guage, or fuel guage, but I have seen a few with oil guages acting this way.
it sounds to me you like you simply need to bleed the air out of the system.slacken off the nut next to the gauge ,start up your motor and air will be seen as bubbles when thwy seise to be seen tighten up the nut .
it could be either one what you need to do is put a manual oil pressure guage on your truck and make sure the oil pressure is in fact good then go from there