Hmm Stag out of Winter/Covid/dead gearbox hibernation - couple of issues

[CV35Ian]

Well used Stag to go to office today, started and ran beautifully.
Odd thing though, oil level checked, no odd sounds but oil ptmressure about half what it was when I last used it in March to come back from paint shop. It's due an oil change but any ideas on why a lay up could cause this? I did replace the oil pressure pipe and that's all intact, no leaking....
Also temp gauge seem to read a bit low, electric fan comes on when it's at about 1/3 rather than 1/2 temp.
It's the dual gauge water temp/ oil pressure, but I'm sure the two bits can't be related.

Also overdrive worked to start with, dropped out then worked again - is this most likely to be one of the connections to the solenoid?

Thanks

Ian

[CV35Ian]

Just looked at oil pressure pipe, it looks like there's air trapped in it, are you supposed to bleed it before attaching to gauge?

[StagJonno]

Just looked at oil pressure pipe, it looks like there's air trapped in it, are you supposed to bleed it before attaching to gauge?

Will let others advise re reduced pressure, though there was a similar experience posted recently.

Air in the oil pressure gauge feed - seems that this just dampens the pointer movement. My experience seems to confirm this with 40+ hot running/ 25 hot idle, with air in the tube. I can't think of any way to purge this that wouldn't be messy to your carpets and, in any case, how could you get the air from the gauge itself.

[CV35Ian]

All good today, changed oil and filter - old oil was like pitch - and oil pressure back to normal.
Also fiddled with wiring in centre console and we now have working overdrive. Now to sort the (proper) Mini!

[CV35Ian]

And temp gauge has settled down as well