oil gauge
 

Just a quick question: is your oil gauge when the car is turned on, always in the middle or is it just a little to the right???? i got into a car accident and when i was driving it to the shop i noticed that the gauge was a little to the right. i don't remember if it was always that way or if it was in the middle? any reply would really help me out.

Should be two or three ticks to the right of center. That is very normal for this gauge. Don't worry about it. It's pretty much an idiot light of gauges so as long as it's up there all is fine according to it.

sorry about the accident and best of luck - Haze

thanks, some dumb a$$ guy ran a red! I just hope that it doesn't mess up anything in the future and that the dealership won't be able to tell that it has been in an accident. i don't want to lose any warranty

anyone else? is your gauge always in the middle or slightly to the right??

Slightly to the right of center here. Add/needed a quart and it stayed the same. HMMM.......

Yep, mine has always been a little to the right of center since day 1. No problems here.

I was worried that my accident may have been the cause but it seems like it is always pointing a little to the right of the center. Thanks everyone. Now I am gonna be without my 8 for the next week!

Like the "gauge" in the MIata, the one in the 8 is also just a modified idiot light.

Earlier Miatas had a proper gauge, but it's alleged that too many owners were complaining about fluctuating pressure readings, so the decision was made made to provide an "on/off" response on a phony pressure guage.

Either that, or the Ford accountants figured they could save a few bucks a vehicle by dumbing it down.

Cheers

Two - three ticks to the right

Serge

It's an oil pressure gauge- it won't register changes in your oil level (unless you have no oil left). Unfortunately, it's also just a dummy gauge, meaning it has only two positions- no pressure, or ok pressure. As long as everything is ok, that needle should always been in the same place (a spot on the dial arbitrarily picked by Mazda to make you feel good) when the motor is running.

Hmmmm, that's somewhat discouraging... Didn't realize that the average driver was so stupid in the eyes of the manufacturer that they couldn't read an oil gauge. But mine is always two or three ticks to the right of center.

But it has an "L" and "F" reading ~ meaning low and full
not low and "High"

You sure you're looking at the right gauge? The OPG has 'L' and 'H' markings...

The problem is there are very few drivers that have experienced a true, working OPG, and even fewer that would understand why the needle was moving around and what readings were considered good or bad. Mazda got a lot of complaints from Miata owners when it had a working gauge because they didn't understand what was going on with it... many even thinking they were low on oil. Sometime around the 94-95 year they stopped putting analog senders in and went to a binary switch instead. They figured if it stayed consistently right above the middle mark, it would look normal to the average driver and they wouldn't worry about it.

Oops :D