Oil sending unit 2004 Chevy Suburban
 

My oil pressure gauge is pegged out at the high end so I am thinking the oil sending unit needs replaced. Problem is, I can't find it. Chilton's says its at the rear of the intake manifold which is hard to access. Anyone have any thoughts or suggestions?

2004 Chev Suburban 4x4, 5.3L Flexfuel

As always, thanks in advance for the help.

It is screwed into the block, behind the intake manifold. Slightly offset to the drivers side if I remember correctly.

Its a royal pain to try and get it out without removing the intake. Pull the intake off and replace it from there. The intake should only take an extra hour at most.

Also, it takes a special socket to unscrew it, just FYI before you get in there.

I was hoping to avoid removing the manifold as that is a little outside my comfort zone. But so was replacing the ball joints in my last Suburban and you guys talked me through that one as well. I can get the tool. It's only a few dollars at the store.

Not knowing exactly where it is, on my sunbird, it too was soooo hard to access. BUT, jacked the car up, and crawled underneath. That was a must. Any way you can jack up the car and put on jack stands? That might be the key.

I've been replacing these like crazy the last 2 years. There's a small mesh screen under the sending unit that plugs up...make sure to fish it out and clean it. I always remove the intake... Easy job on the 5.3's. It's worth it to replace the intake gaskets on a flex fuel 5.3 as the first gasket design had a habit of developing small vacuum leaks. Just keep track of your harness connectors and vacuum lines and you'll do just fine. :-)

Edit: just remembered, both of the issues I mentioned are covered by GM TSB's...may give more specific info in the bulletins.

Thanks for the input guys. I had a friend come over and we made that thing our biotch. It only took 30 minutes total. Using extenders and a mirror, we were able to access and replace the unit without removing the manifold. Thank goodness.