Oil pressure warning light sender, fair bit of thread showing

[nath]

Hi There,

Just did an oil change on the weekend and relaced the filter etc, This seemed to stop a bit of an oil leak I was experiencing. I think tightening the canister up with a torque wrench to the correct setting helped a bit. However after a bit of a run I noticed a leak again. I then noticed that the low oil pressure sender that is screwed into the top section of the canister has quite a bit of thread exposed. In some other photos on line these seemed to be screwed right into the canister lid with no thread showing.

Before I pulled a spanner out and started to screw something in further than it should be I thought I would ask those of you in the know whether this sender should be tightened all the way down? I looked through the handbook and could not find any info on it. Also there does seem to be a bit of oiliness around the sender, and some evidence that this is where the leak may be coming from as it is also on the nearby engine mount.

Cheers
Nath

[colcol]

I don't know of this particular sender, but most of the ones i have had over the years leak, there are 2 types of thread, a tapered one, where you do the sender up until the threads seat on each other and a straight thread where the sender has a flange, usually the hexagon bit and a aluminium washer that seals on the engine to the sender. if you have a straight thread, put a new alloy washer on to see if it stops the leak, if it is tapered, try cleaning the thread and putting some teflon tape on it, but i have found after a few years the senders themselves leak, usually where the metal is pressed around the ceramic insulator, got a qoute for a new one for the 33 from an Alfa Spare parts place a few years ago and it was about $35, went to Repco and bought a new one for $8, still in car, Colin.

[nath]

Thanks for the reply.

I thought I would try to attach some photos of the offending sender!

Should I try to do it up so no thread is visible?

[colcol]

Loosen off and take out sensor, give it a clean, see if you can determine if it is a tapered thread or straight thread, clean up the sensor and around sensor, where it screws into the engine, and see if the thread is leaking or whether the sensor itself is leaking, i have been thru this many times, spend hours stuffing around cleaning up threads and new sealing washers only to find i have a leaky sensor, Colin.