oil pressure switch leaking oil into the ECM

[Money Maker]

Having another great day...



Factory Oil pressure "gauge" is reading zero. I start trying to figure out why and find the 50 pin ECM connector to be saturated in black engine oil Pull the plug for the switch off and it is full of oil too. Turns out oil has found a way through the switch and all the way through the one wire back to the ECM where it pushed its way through the 50 pin connector and saturated the pins. I stopped there don't really want to go into the ECM to clean it. I hope the oil didn't manage to go any further.



Anyone ever seen this happen before???

 

[clinebarger]

No can't say i have. I do LS1 and LT1 conversions for a living and handled a lot of weatherpack connectors and seen the pressure switch has been leaking on alot of them but never make it's way trough the wire. If thats really what happend dodge makes very good connectors or very poor wire insulation.

 

[B.G. Smith]

Had it happen on a 92 Chevy pickup. Took it in and told the service writer that oil was being pumped through the wire to the firewall then leaking onto ground. They changed the intake manifold gasket. Took it back the next day and the finally changed the switch. Those are good weather tight connections. bg

 

[RCupp]

I work on OTR trucks and do see this alot especially on older middle to late 90s Series 60 Detroits where the injector harnesses wick oil back to the ECM

and also the Cummins engine position sensors will do the same back to their four pin connector. Haven't seen any issues related to it though.

When you pull the connectors its just a nasty mess but haven't seen the inside of the ECMs to see if it travels further.



Robert

 

[rbattelle]

The ECM is probably okay... they seem to be sealed up pretty good.

Be careful if you use a degreaser that it doesn't eat the plastic.

Personally, I hate plastic electrical connectors, regardless brand or type. In all the electrical doohickeys I've made I've never used one - always aluminum.

Ryan

 

[jelag]

I just saw a Toyota that had a would not start issue... . the 60 psi in the fuel loop had pushed gasoline back to the ECM and melted the resin in the ECM and shorted it out... ... it was found that the owner had put some chemical in the tank to help clean the injectors... . except he used 8 to 10 times the mix..... way too rich... the mixture melted the sealer in the fuel pressure regulator and allowed the fuel to back up through the lines(electrical wires) to the ECM...



This car was 2 years old and the dealer wouldn't touch it because of the chemicals added to the tank... . total cost of repair was close to 4000. 00



I've often wondered if some of the stuff we put in the engine or the fuel system would do this kind of damage... . Did you have any additives in the oil???

 

[Money Maker]

No oil additives. Not that it should matter but due to a recent turbo problem I was forced to dump my amsoil and because I didn't have enough on hand to replace it I had to put mobile1 back in it. Only had about 3k miles on the new oil when this occured.



I cleaned everything up best I could replaced the switch and all is good again.

 

[Money Maker]

FYI an ECM through DC is $2200. 00