I have never seen one go like this. It is spraying oil out the top where the wire for the gadget attaches. It made a HUGE mess of the engine compartment and I am betting I lost 4 quarts (with the accusump I take 8) Anyone seen a failure like this before?
Now I have to look and see if I have a spare sending unit around of any type to plug this thing.
how long was it on the car? Personally, I expected better of Autometer
I had one on my boat fail and dump five of the seven quarts in the bilge. It was leaking where the stem goes into it. Do you know how hard it is to find five quarts of engine oil in the middle of a harbor ten miles from the boat landing. I ended up filling it up with 2 stroke oil another boater gave me and running it back to the landing. While it was spraying another four quarts into the bilge. It's a wonder the engine survived. The only reason I noticed it had lost the oil was the valves started rattling. When I looked at the gauge was sitting on zero. 
After checking things I lost 6 quarts. The problem is finding another one. I am supposed to go on a fun run Saturday. What I am more annoyed about is the $25 of brand new oil wasted. I just did an oil change 2 weeks ago. This sounds like a known failure for these things. I think automoter should look in to a redesign. If I did not have the accusump I would have toasted the motor.
I took it apart this morning and found that the bolt holding the stud in place that the wire attaches to had come loose. So I tightened it up and put it back in the car and it does not leak. The sending unit is not working properly as I am only getting 50 lbs of pressure on the gadget while the mechanical gauge on my accusump is seeing 85-90
However this explains a couple of things.
A while back I had to remove the cam tower while doing a timing belt and when I got it all back together I had low oil pressure. I could not figure it out.
The power steering leak was really an oil leak.
My bearings are not toast.
I am wondering of the nut that secures to stud to the sensor housing is also the calibration for the unit.
Similar thing happened to me when I had an autometer on my old wrx about 6 years ago. Luckily it was only a very slow drip. I just removed the sender, capped the line and did without oil pressure info, then sold the car a few months later without the gauges. It was probably on the car for 2.5 years/50,000 miles.
Edit re: comments below. My sender was mounted to a bracket on the strut tower and plumbed to the engine with braided stainless line, FWIW.
I don't believe the Autometer sensors are designed to be mounted ON the engine. The vibration kills them in short order.
Run a short piece of braided line from the engine to the sensor and mount the sensor in a vibration reducing mount somewhere on the chassis.
If you want to stop experiencing problems, stop buying Autometers. Their quality isnt what it once was. I have had exceptional luck using Japanese gauges like HKS, GReddy, Defi, and A'PEXi. I also had a car with a full complement of Stack gauges and that was pretty awesome.
VDO and Stri also make good gauges. VDO are a good budget option. Stri makes JDM gauges without the JDM price.
93gsxturbo wrote: I don't believe the Autometer sensors are designed to be mounted ON the engine. The vibration kills them in short order. Run a short piece of braided line from the engine to the sensor and mount the sensor in a vibration reducing mount somewhere on the chassis. If you want to stop experiencing problems, stop buying Autometers. Their quality isnt what it once was. I have had exceptional luck using Japanese gauges like HKS, GReddy, Defi, and A'PEXi. I also had a car with a full complement of Stack gauges and that was pretty awesome.
STACK is actually made by Autometer. 
But yes, i agree. Autometer is not what it was. If you want cheap, then look at Prosport. They aren't always perfect, but they work extremely well for the money.
The gauge was installed by the guy that provided the flex line for the accusump. The sensor is installed on the fitting of the flex line that goes to the motor (tapped in to the housing where the oil cooler is) I have always used VDO. They have always been dead nuts reliable, cheep, and match the OE VDO stuff from Porsche. The used VDO market is huge due to there use in many cars. The Autometer Unit has probably been in the car for 10+ years. I have an oe sending unit and a VDO gauge. I have to get an adaptor for the sender as it uses a much larger thread than the Autometer. I may have to put an elbow in as well because adding the adapter may make the sender to close to the frame rail.
RexSeven wrote: VDO and Stri also make good gauges. VDO are a good budget option. Stri makes JDM gauges without the JDM price.
I looked at Stri last night for the Escort. I'd say they've got the JDM price, too.
Oil sender units in general are trouble points. I've had 3 fail over the years, one on a Ford 260 V-8, two on Spitfires. The sender units look identical, and failed identically: Seal between metal body and plastic inner part starts to weep, weeping leads to leaking, leaking leads to streaming. Eventually, while you are driving down the road without a care in the world, 4 things happen: 1) Last bit of oil in the motor squirts out. 2) Engine bearings spin due to lack of oil, motor releases magic smoke. 3) Engine oil pressure light illuminates. 4) You coast to a stop, in the middle of BFE.
Carter
92CelicaHalfTrac wrote:93gsxturbo wrote: I don't believe the Autometer sensors are designed to be mounted ON the engine. The vibration kills them in short order. Run a short piece of braided line from the engine to the sensor and mount the sensor in a vibration reducing mount somewhere on the chassis. If you want to stop experiencing problems, stop buying Autometers. Their quality isnt what it once was. I have had exceptional luck using Japanese gauges like HKS, GReddy, Defi, and A'PEXi. I also had a car with a full complement of Stack gauges and that was pretty awesome.STACK is actually made by Autometer.
Ahh I see they got bought back in 2007. The Stacks I had were from 2003. I wouldnt reccommend Stacks any more I guess.
Prosports are also garbage, worse than Auto Meter.
Grumble, grumble.
Well, of course I bought an Autometer oil gauge. Do most of those senders have the same thread? My block had a hole with a nackered thread and for some reason the 22RE has british pipe thread, so I took the sender to the machine shop and they're fixing the hole to fit the sender. Hope it's easy to change out down the road if I have a problem. I did get the right sender for the idiot light, so I'll have that as a back up in case of a big problem... you know, like the oil sender falling apart.
93gsxturbo wrote:92CelicaHalfTrac wrote:Ahh I see they got bought back in 2007. The Stacks I had were from 2003. I wouldnt reccommend Stacks any more I guess. Prosports are also garbage, worse than Auto Meter.93gsxturbo wrote: I don't believe the Autometer sensors are designed to be mounted ON the engine. The vibration kills them in short order. Run a short piece of braided line from the engine to the sensor and mount the sensor in a vibration reducing mount somewhere on the chassis. If you want to stop experiencing problems, stop buying Autometers. Their quality isnt what it once was. I have had exceptional luck using Japanese gauges like HKS, GReddy, Defi, and A'PEXi. I also had a car with a full complement of Stack gauges and that was pretty awesome.STACK is actually made by Autometer.
I've had better luck with my Prosports than i have with AutoMeter so far. But that's neither here nor there.
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