Manx Club

My Mom drives an Avanti. She has had it about a year. She called me yesterday and told me the oil pressire guage read 80 PSI when driving around 75 MPH or so It drops to 50 PSI very slowly at idle. This car usually reads around 50 PSI all the time. She didnt add any oil or have any work done to the car. I am at a loss as to what this could be. I suspect a bad guage or sending unit. Any suggestions? I know the only thing Avanti and buggies have in common is the fiberglass but everyone here seems to know so much, I thought I would throw it out there...

Been a long time since I heard of an Avanti, the problem could be that the oil in the engine is the wrong weight and to thick. These were powerful engines and the oil pump put plenty out as the car was rated at 167 miles an hour. Studebaker had a two year waiting list for these cars. Most everyone think Sudebaker got out of the car business cause they went broke, not true. they went into the airo space field, they made skylab that flew out there and crashed into Australia when she burned up. Those of us whoo had studebakers knew she wouldn't burn totally cause we had owned a lot of there cars.............wish I still had my 2R5 Stude Truck, wow what a look and ride. Neal

This Avanti is a 2002. They started building the cars again in that year. Since then I heard the company is up for sale so I'm not sure how many they made. This car has 85,000 miles on it. The oil hasnt been changed in 3 months. The oil pressure problem started last week So I dont think it is the wrong viscosity oil. Thanks for the info on Studibaker & the space program. That was something I dindt know.

yep thats the truck type I had, wish I had another one.............anyone out there know where to find one? Neal

The pressure relief in the filter might be screwing up. Fram filters are notorious for it. Try a Wix filter and see if the problem goes away.

[QUOTE="newmanx59"]The pressure relief in the filter might be screwing up. Fram filters are notorious for it. Try a Wix filter and see if the problem goes away.[/QUOTE] Thanks Jerry. I'll tell her to give that a try.

I believe Sudebaker sold the Avanti name several years ago. I remember seeing the Avanti`s for sale at a Cadilac dealer, back in the mid 80`s. They still resembled the `63`s. Not sure who produces them...GM maybe ?