oil level sensor?

[BerniniCaCO3]

Hi!

I got a new used oil pan for my engine some time back, came off a 1990 mustang I think? Exact same shape though.
It's got an oil level sensor in it, which my old pan never had.

Wondering if there's a way to hook it up and use it? I like the idea. Not that I don't check my oil often enough to catch a serious leak well before the pickup starts gasping air unless it were some sudden disaster.

Did the mustangs have separate oil pressure and oil level lights on the dash? Or did the oil level sensor hook into the computer, which would then turn on the oil idiot light for either oil pressure OR oil level?
If that's the case, it might suggest that, if I were to have a mustang computer, it would expect an input from the oil level sensor?

[gadget73]

if your car doesnt have the circuit, then its iffy. Theres a relay and a light inside the cluster for the circuit. If you have an EVTM, I don't see why you couldn't add the feature but its probably not something that you can simply hook up one wire and make it work though.


ECM has nothing to do with the oil level sender. It goes to a relay and to the light only. It was optional on the panthers and may have been optional on Mustangs. Cars with a check oil lamp had a seperate and unrelated oil pressure sensor of some fashion.

[TomO]

I had an '86 Mustang GT with the 5.0 and it had an oil level warning light and an oil pressure gauge.

I now have an '89 Merc. GM and it has an oil pan with the oil level sensing unit, but it's not hooked up to anything and the car never had the level warning light. So, I'm guessing that at least some cars were equipped with the oil level sensing unit even though it was never intended to be used.

I know from experience that the oil level sensing units will tend to leak oil after a while. Both of the above-mentioned cars did. I fixed the GM by replacing the sensing unit with an oil pan drain plug.

[87_crown_vic]

it should have had a wire for the oil level and up by the filter is where the pressure sensor is...

[BerniniCaCO3]

Thanks Gadget and TomO. So it was an analog signal straight to a separate warning light, that I don't have: that sounds like the end of that
Now I wonder then if there is a grand marquis dash out there with another light on it as per Tom's grand marquis w/ the sensor but w/o the light, or, if they just threw the occasional mustang oil pan on there because that's what was stocked in the corner of the factory... or maybe if a previous owner found a replacement pan that happened to include the sensor (as is now my own case)

[gadget73]

Sometimes the odd hodgepodge of equipment on these cars makes no sense. I've seen cars that didn't have cruise control from the factory come with the cruise servo under the hood, but the steering wheel did not have the buttons to turn it on.

[BerniniCaCO3]

oh, what does the cruise servo look like? I have the buttons, so I should have it (never used it), curious where it is/ how it works!

[BerniniCaCO3]

nevermind, it's got to be one of the three cables that link up to the throttle, right?

[sly]

yeah... follow the cables from the side that has 2 on them. One goes to the firewall (not this one), the other goes to the CC servo. It should be near the brake booster (seen it here on EVERY SINGLE CAR and truck I've ever seen under the hood of that had cruise).

[1990LTD]

the cruise servo looks like a tuna can sitting on its side over by the drivers side hood hinge assy.