General Maintenance & Repairs - Oil Pressure Gauge Problem...HELP!

Ok so here is the problem I ran into. I was on my way back to college a few days ago, after driving for about 1.5 hours I had to stop at a stop sign. I leaned my arm out the window while waiting, and I noticed a funny "bump"-I'd call it-in the idle. I thought it was kinda funny and didnt think anything of it, so I took off from the stop light like usual and I noticed that there was a SES light on now. So I get worried and start scanning my gauges really close while driving, and I notice that the oil pressure gauge is popping all around, which I never noticed before. While at idle it would read around 20 and it would jump up really fast to 40-50 when accellerating. While on the highway it would stay around 40, but when I hit the brakes for a stop it would jump down to 20 or even 10 a time or two.
I have since drove the car the rest of the 1.5 hour drive back, as well as around town 2 times. And I have experienced no problems, other than the gauge acting weird.
I did just programmed my car with a Hypertech PowerProgrammer III, like 2 days before the 3 hour drive to home and back. So I reprogrammed my car back to stock, thinking this might be the problem...the SES light went off, however the oil pressure gauge still did the same thing.
So I'm wondering if it is safe to continue driving with this problem, or if I should bring it into the shop ASAP. I have a trip to a car show Saturday and need to know if I can go or not.
Thanks a bunch, and I really appreciate your help, as I am not all that smart with LS1's or cars in general.
Thanks,
Dustin

Did you read the codes before you reset every thing? Also start the engine and take the fill cap off the rocker cover, hold a rag over the fill hole and work your throttle body with your hand. Let it idle back down and see if you have oil on the rag. If you do, you are making oil pressure and your sending unit is probly going bad. If there is no oil getting to the top of your moter your oil pump is going and you shouldn't drive it.

Could just be a bad oil pressure sensor...it's way in the back, need to remove the intake to get to it easily. I would try to replace that or check the wiring to it first, before worrying about internal engine stuff.

something happened and caused a momentary fluctuation in the idle and set a code that triggered the SES light. now there may be a code for oil pressure sending unit, but i dont think its related to the idle fluctuation. there may be another code for that.

i'd do what conan said and check for oil pressure. if youre good then drive it until the light sets again and get it checked before you fuck with the hypertech. that thing reset your PCM thus clearing the code. cant diagnose this until you know where to start.

Alrighty, so I took the oil fill cap off the rocker cover (I did not remove the fill cap neck, just the cap). held a rag to it and reved the engine a few times and the rag was still clean. I'm guessing this isnt good?? Or does the fill neck have to be removed too, as it might be hard to get oil to go up that neck? As I said I dont know cars all that well, I just like to drive them and drive them fast haha.
Also I checked the oil and it was full and still very very clean...could the oil filter be plugged or just an old filter be causing this problem?
Thanks again for all your help.
Dustin

something happened and caused a momentary fluctuation in the idle and set a code that triggered the SES light. now there may be a code for oil pressure sending unit, but i dont think its related to the idle fluctuation. there may be another code for that.


As far as I know there are no codes for the oil pressure sending unit in an f-body. If the oil pressure drops to zero you just get a check gages light.

Now, as for the oil pressure. I would be willing to bet that the gauge has always acted that way, you just never noticed it until you started paying attention. If you used the hypertech while you had the SES light then you erased the code. The next time the code pops up, see what it is for.

To really check the oil pressure you would need to put a mechanical gauge where the oil pressure sending unit is near the back of the intake. But like I said what you've described sounds fairly normal. The pressure will be lower at a stop/idle and should increase when you get in it.