Jim Ellis Posted April 30, 2001 Share Posted April 30, 2001 The temp gauge on my 1.6 K series has a habit of going nuts, throwing fits of full scale deflection and practicing Keith Moon antics well into the red zone. The problem has arisen intermittently since I assembled the car last August but it now appears that it is well hooked on the habit. The gauge behaves normally 80% of the time indicating a temp between 80 and 85 deg. As soon as I lift off the loud pedal the gauge needle starts to twitch, after a couple of seconds it will then fly between 80 and the end of its travel in an alarming fashion. These wide range oscillations continue until I press the loud pedal again when it settles back to 80 deg. On no occasion has the cooling system ever looked to be stressed, no steam, no nasty smells, the fan cuts in and out as it should etc. I have searched high and low through the wiring looking for dodgy earths and connections but all I have been able to do is cure most of the rattles that the car had!! I even tried to understand the wiring/loom diagram in the assembly guide but gave up on that one. Still the gauge continues its antics. Can anyone offer any bright ideas as to what is going on and how to cure it? Is it the gauge, the sender unit, or spurious induced signals? If the latter, from where are they coming? Your help with this highly irritating problem would be much appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Green Posted April 30, 2001 Share Posted April 30, 2001 Jim, The only time my temp gauge has gone high, it was after I'd been fiddling with something or other and I'd inadvertantly tensioned the little wire that goes to the temp sender in the water rail. Once I'd removed the tension and straightened the contact, the temp showed normal. Perhaps something is tensioning the wire when you lift off the power ? But then the engine doesn't move much, so probably b******s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonhill Posted April 30, 2001 Share Posted April 30, 2001 Don't know if you know this already, and this is why you were checking earths etc., but if you ground the wire from the sender to the gauge, the gauge will read full scale. This applies to any gauge AIUI. I had this once, when the wire was rubbing against the block. It shorted and the gauge started reading maximum. Jon Edited by - jonhill on 30 Apr 2001 16:37:02 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now