Someone tell me where it is, Please! I've got the replacement in-hand, oil is drained and filter is removed as part of normal maintenance.

The car was exhibiting a low-oil-pressure warning at idle after warm-up. Doesn't seem to be a real pressure issue, so I've had the new switch waiting on the oil-change interval.....from what info I could find, it is allegedly somewhere near the a/c compressor, which would put it somewhat forward of the oil filter. I have removed the air box and snorkel and haven't yet located it. Next off will probably be the drive belt....

 

I'm not all too familiar with the 3.0 V6 but check right above the oil filter housing. As a precaution I would have checked your oil pressure with a manual gauge to rule out any oil pressure issues.

 

Here you go, from my experience about five years ago:

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/s...-switch-83426/

 

Thanks much, Karl! This entry allowed me to get a shot of it on my second try:
https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/s...26/#post608834

Now if only my hands were as thin as my phone.....



BTW, don't know how I missed your thread, I found a couple using search a few weeks ago....or months, now I guess it was, but everything I found on it just described the same problem (Oil P warning at idle on warm engine) and claimed success with a new switch.....didn't find one on actually replacing it. I'll probably try the reservoir route, rather than removing the pump..at least for a first pass...have had that out a few years ago when I swapped reservoirs between the 03 and the 05.

Abonano...yeah, that is of course the proper way to proceed...but I haven't yet figured out how to check it with a direct-reading mechanical gauge when I don't know where the switch/sender port is located....

 

Good advice, definitely. However, on a practical level, access is very difficult, and the switch is only about $10. I'd be more inclined to gamble on a new switch versus all that effort to connect a mechanical gauge, and then if that checks okay, removing it and then still replacing the switch. I'm not ashamed to be called lazy...

 

As already mentioned, I had the air box out. That'd be the first step. I don't think you can accomplish oil pressure switch renewal with it in-place.
Here we are, prepared to drain the power steering reservoir through the forward, small-diameter hose:



One spring clamp, then significant grunting, pulling and twisting and eventually it will break free. Careful to make sure you apply only axial loads, nothing in bending, to the hose/nipple. It's a plastic res, after all....



Now getcha 8mm socket (I found a shorty best for the bolt on the inboard fenderwell) and remove the two fixing bolts. No need for a suitable container as the fixing bolts are retained within the iso-mounts that cling tenaciously to the reservior.



I didn't mess with the larger diameter hose on the bottom of the reservoir...wasn't necessary. Just lay it over out of the way.
Now you are afforded room to reach in and disconnect the electrical by feel. Find the tab, press and pull aft.



I went at it with a 24mm socket because that is what fit my Beck-Arnley replacement. No joy. Fiddled with it a bit and determined the original requires a 21mm socket. You'll need a collection of extensions, wobbles, and universals. Well, with a little more effort and contortions, you may be able to do it with a straight extension of exact (but unknown) length.





Twist the new one in..I torqued it to just past "feels about right" to "ain't broke yet." after a generous application of anti-seize on the threads. Plug in the electrical connector.



Remount your reservoir. Reconnect the small hose. Top it up. Remount the air box (don't forget to plug in your MAF) and you are good to go. I sourced this one from Amazon:Beck Arnley 201-1920 Oil Pressure Switch with Light I'm still looking for the light that should've been included according to the title/description ;-)

Now....Rick, Jon...any other 05 guys...who's envious of the nifty shock tower cover shown in the photo?

 

Oh you know I am Zane!! I had been on the hunt for many many years starting back at post #11 back in 2011. See link post 11

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/s...r-parts-54964/

 

He he...and you didn't get 'em?

I bought a 2003 4.2L with a knocking rod a few weeks ago to keep my two S-T's going. So far, just the strut covers, a front top-cover fastener and one front wheel bearing. But I have plans to move the near-new Michelin Premiers and the big battery to the Spruce Bruce. Also will be using the big bumper fascia-undertray and both front wheelwell liners for the 2003. Grille is a definite transfer to the 03 as well as at least one front fog!

 

I don't think anyone disagreed with abonano's post in #2 regarding the efficacy of checking the actual pressure with a mechanical gauge.

However, in my case, my daughter had the car out-of-state with the problem (oil pressure warning light at hot-idle) recurring numerous times. Given that fitment of a mechanical gauge apparatus requires the same effort as switch replacement, and given reports that in many cases it has been the switch at-fault, I couldn't see any real downside to just fitting a new switch. Any damage done if it were an actual oil pressure problem would already be resident from previous operations, with little more to occur now that the car is back in the hands of one that is somewhat more gauge/light/trouble aware!

So I performed an oil and filter change (I've been using Rotella T6 5W-40 synthetic across the full range for at least a year now) at the normally-due 7,500 mile mark. I fit the new pressure switch.

Took the car on my daily commute which is 50 miles, give or take, one way. In the morning, it is 40 mi of 70+ mph freeway then 10 mi of stop-n-go freeway/neighborhood/city traffic. Opposite that in the afternoon, on the way home. I had no problems until the last two stoplights on the way home before hitting the freeway portion. Then, I got the oil pressure warning light at idle. ANYTHING above idle would extinguish it - even the smallest increase in revs I could accomplish - 10's-20's near as I could work out from the rev-counter. After the freeway run home, i let it idle for 10-20 minutes without recurrence.

So I parked it and ordered this:

After considerable futzing about I managed to string together the following bits of 3/8" black iron plumbing to allow fitment of both the gauge and the warning light: from the engine block: 3" nipple, union, close nipple, tee.



Although fitment of the gauge alone would've been much easier, my interest was not so much "Oil pressure value at idle" as it was "Oil pressure value at idle while warning light lit!"

I fit the gauge adapter in the the tee opposite the nipples, then the gauge kit quick-connect 90 deg fitting, then the gauge hose quick-connect. I fit the switch in the vertical port of the tee. FWIW, I fit the old pressure-switch which seemed to be more likely to exhibit the problem. I've spent several days with it driving locally (didn't want to make the run to the metroplex with all that hose coiled up under the bonnet) but getting it well up to operating temp and then idling for sufficient time for recurrence, but have been unable to duplicate the problem.

Last night I stripped off the gauge apparatus and re-fit the new pressure switch. I'll turn it back over to management for her commute to/from work which is only 5 mi down the road with scant idle time and see if she reports the return of the warning light. While instrumented, I regularly observed 80 psi at idle after cold start, and 18-20 psi at hot idle. Lowest I ever observed was 18 psi.



I purchased 3/8" nipples in 1/2" increments up to 4 1/2". None were long enough to clear the head enough to allow installation of the tee. However, with the arrangement ultimately chosen, I had only enough room between tee and structure to fit the 90 deg. fitting. Wasn't enough room to skip the 90 and just use the hose.

During set-up/testing, I had occasion to access the oil pressure port often enough that I figured out there was no need to drain the PAS reservoir. Pull the air-box, Remove two fixing bolts from the PAS res, and lay it over, forward, where the air box was, hoses still connected, and you can access the oil port for switch change or such other schemes as you may devise.

 

Well done, Zane. Let's hope the new oil pressure switch has indeed cured this particular problem. Keep us posted....

 

First time poster.. I have an 01 s type.. oil pressure light is coming on after warm up at idie, and stays on even while driving. I figure sending unit/switch is culprit. Also notice a very strong oil burning on exhaust manifold smell after driving.

However, I bought the car, drove it about 50 miles and put a quart of oil in it because i thought it looked low...at about 80 miles the oil light came on....I wonder...is it the switch or was the oil that I put in it a different grade than what the previous owner had in it and this create a scenario that would cause the light to come on...

 

You must be risking an engine write-off.

Check/replace the switch...

If it's OK, don't drive till you figure out the fault.

 

either. Using 1 qt. of oil in 80 miles signfies a huge consumption or leakage problem.

 

Mine has returned to its previous mission of being wife-driven. This means sporadic short trips to town and back during the summer, with maybe a once-a-week trek to the metroplex (near's makes no difference, nearly an hour's worth of highway driving followed by several hours of short trips in stop-n-go while she "saves money" and then an hour back home.) Now that school has started, pretty much a daily 5 mi. to school and 5 mi back home, almost entirely highway and the 2 or 3 trips/mo down to the metroplex for more "savings."

When it was daughter-driven, it had several more obstacles to overcome, not least of which was that it found itself in LA/MS! I guess 40 min of mixed highway/city traffic each morning and each evening. She started getting the oil P warning, only at idle, after a sustained highway run, and this on hot days - >90F. I changed the switch first, and got the light at idle on a 98 deg (F) day after 20 mins of stop-n-go after all-day hot-soak in the sunny parking lot. No light that morning on the 1 hr drive, including at stop lights and after 2-3 mins idle after parking.

After two appearances of the warning at the last two stoplights before I hit the highway portion - again, ease the throttle barely off-idle and the light would extinguish - but after the highway run home that day, I sat in it idling for 10 min with no recurrence.

After that, I fit the mechanical pressure gauge under the bonnet and never saw anything much below 20 psi, maybe 18 once or twice. I believe the pressure switch trips at 8 psi, but unsure of that. No recurrences since I refit the new switch.

If you don't have the light at first start, but then it is on all the time after warm-up, that would be worrisom for me. WHen I had the gauge set-up, I noticed Oil Pressure on cold start was significantly higher than after warm-up, but most reports of switch problems have reported the warning light only at idle. I think it is more common for the switch to drift a few psi than 30-50.