Anyone have a 912ul VDO oil pressure sender failure?

[dholly 718]

Mine went to -zero- psi this a.m. in flight. As everything except pilot sweat level looked ok on the quick turn back home, I assume it is an oil pressure sender failure. The VDO's seem to have a bad rep for going erratic and failing over a period of time, never read of one failing instantly though. Comments? 

[C5Engineer 1170]

Wow that's kind of spooky. Good on you for handling it well. There's been more than one person stuff an airplane after panicking because of a gauge failure. Rule #1 is always FLY THE AIRPLANE! Assuming you already checked the wiring to the gauge? Any chance a coupler or something broke off?

[Av8r3400 1179]

Doug, is it safe to assume that you chased the leads from gage to sender?

I've actually had that happen on several gages on my plane and it wound up being a loose connections.

Right now my egt is giving me fits. (Luckily it is mostly unnecessary on a 912.)

[akflyer 1427]

Was it a slow drop to Zero or an instantaneous drop?  The slow drop would pucker me right up, the sudden drop, just make me keep an eye out for a good place to land if need be.

 

Like Larry said, check the connections, maybe pull the sender and see if there is a blockage of some sort in it.  Do you have an oil temp gauge? 

 

[dholly 718]

If it was a gradual drop it happened over only a few secs. I was watching the gauges very closely as I am also chasing a high (higher than I want, anyway) engine temp and I had made a couple changes since the last flight. And yes I did chase the wiring, at least as good as possible without breaking open the bundles. No anomolies noted. I actually have all of my oil pressure sender and temp wire leads in corregated flexible tubing for chaff/heat protection and zip tied for minimal movement. I have the standard Westach 4-way and the Oil, EGT and CHT temps remained relatively stable once I dropped the nose level and turned for home so I think the pressure sender crapped out. Lots of chatter about limited life due to engine vibration and even a remote 'kit' to locate off engine on the firewall.. $170, gulp! I did read a comment somewhere that if you disconnect the sender leads and the gauge then reads 50psi it is in all probability a sender failure, that info supposedly gained form a call to the manufacturer.

[dholly 718]

Just to update/close this thread, the saga continues...

 

After reading so much about the ever-so-common 912 w/ VDO pressure sender failure issues, I assumed (yeah, yeah) that I had joined the club. While at OSH, I stopped by a couple vendors to price a new sender and, in every instance, I told them I had a Westach Quad gauge and let them look up the proper sender. In every instance, the VDO sender they produced sure didn't look like what I remembered. (Note to self: your memory isn't what it used to be, phone pics priceless!).

 

Turns out the Quad gauge does not use the VDO sender. More specifically, it does use a sender that has been discontinued by the manufacturer. Westberg will be happy to take your gauge and convert circuitry for $300 +S&H and sell you a new (proprietary) sender for $50. So, $350-$400 +downtime to update the Quad gauge. And you got another non off the shelf sender. Great.

 

I remain 99% certain the sender is my problem. I have removed and reinstalled it twice and I have opened wire bundles, traced, inspected and manipulated every connection multiple times now. The gauge will still work intermittently. Nothing above creates any repeatable pattern. I can start one time, no gauge. Restart, gauge maybe. When it works, it can shut off anytime but vibration or bouncing down the runway has no bearing on when it chooses to work.

 

Can't pinpoint the problem directly so now I am grounded and looking at alternatives to the Quad gauge. I'll start a new thread for soliciting suggestions...

 

[akflyer 1427]

for your peace of mind, could you not just put in an automotive type mechanical gauge   Seems to me that for around 20 bucks you could have a gauge that works all the time

 

Before I grounded myself, I would install one even if its just a quick temp install while I was figuring out what new gauge stack to go with.

[dholly 718]

The thought has crossed my mind, and I may well do that as a temp solution. Somewhat of a silly issue with gallons of gas by your head or in your lap but I prefer to keep the oil out of the cockpit longer term.

[akflyer 1427]

well you could just as easily use an electric automotive gauge and sender   and keep the nasty oil out of the cockpit

 

[dholly 718]

Well this thread is useless without pictures!

[akflyer 1427]

http://www.amazon.com/Sunpro-CP8202-StyleLine-Electrical-Pressure/dp/B000CPINK2/ref=sr_1_4?s=automotive&ie=UTF8&qid=1379007846&sr=1-4

[Av8r_Sed 82]

I had bad luck with my quad gauge and switched over to a MGL E-1.  I've been very happy with it.  It's a solid performer.

 

http://www.mglavionics.com/html/velocity_singles.html

[dholly 718]

Very good to have a first hand E1 pirep, thanks Paul. Curious, did you have any other serious runner-up candidate before pulling the trigger?

[Av8r_Sed 82]

I didn't find any other good options and at the time I had to get 'r done so I pulled the trigger and got lucky.