Temp Gauge out of range

satancom · Post by **satancom** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 7:36 pm

I drove my Land rover down to my mates garage today for a few final bits of work before the MOT and finally ran it up to temp correctly (checked with external temp gauges.

Basically my Temp Gauge reads in the red when the engines up to temp... Can I put a resistor in line to bring it into the correct range or something?

Cheers

JC. · Post by **JC.** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 8:46 pm

Does that not imply that the sender is failing?

Only a couple of quid to change.

Post by **katanaman** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 9:26 pm

JC. wrote:Does that not imply that the sender is failing?

Only a couple of quid to change.

or its the wrong sender for the gauge.

satancom · Post by **satancom** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 9:32 pm

Sorry should have given more detail. The sender is brand new. The gauge is not, however was working previously.

They are most likely mismatched items as its a gauge for a 2.25. Ideally I don't want to change the gauge as I will be doing a long trip in the next few days and would like to keep an eye on the temp!

Cooling system is in good order, the fan (when switched on) cools the engine nicely enough. Plan is to switch it on un traffic and leave it off unless on a big hill.. any other ideas welcome

ChrisJC · Post by **ChrisJC** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 10:06 pm

The easiest way to fix it is to match the sender & gauge.

Otherwise you need to find out if the sender is too low or too high resistance, as the compensation circuit is different for each one (resistor in series for too low a resistance, and in parallel for too high).

Chris.

satancom · Post by **satancom** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 10:26 pm

ChrisJC wrote:The easiest way to fix it is to match the sender & gauge.

Chris.

Yup this would mean fitting an aux gauge though I guess. That is something I plan to do next year (full set of gauges).

Anyhow I have a few boards knocking around from some arcade machines tha run 12v.. So will have a bit of trial and error and see ehre that gets me!

Post by **katanaman** » Mon Dec 15, 2008 11:10 pm

Just out of curiosity this isn't a gauge that should have a voltage regulator and doesn't at the mo. Would still say get the right sender, you never know a 2.25 sender might fit the V8 or at least could be adapted with a thread adapter.

ChrisJC · Post by **ChrisJC** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 8:08 am

The 90 was fitted with a V8 as std, so there must be a stock sender / gauge combination.

Chris.

satancom · Post by **satancom** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 9:37 am

ChrisJC wrote:The 90 was fitted with a V8 as std, so there must be a stock sender / gauge combination.

Chris.

Different to the series gauges though? Someone else had the idea of a stage one temp gauge actually as thats a series motor. So may work and sounds like the best solution

ChrisJC · Post by **ChrisJC** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 10:19 am

Sorry, my mistake!, I forgot yours was a series!

Yes, stage 1 or 101FC are worth a try.

I think I would try to fit the 4-cyl temp sender though as the best solution.

Chris.

satancom · Post by **satancom** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 2:11 pm

ChrisJC wrote:Sorry, my mistake!, I forgot yours was a series!

Yes, stage 1 or 101FC are worth a try.

I think I would try to fit the 4-cyl temp sender though as the best solution.

Chris.

A sender from a 225 petrol may be the cheapest option, At least the temp sender is easy to get at

I iwll get hold of an old one and chekc the threads and see what I need to do. Cheers

Quagmire · Post by **Quagmire** » Wed Dec 17, 2008 9:21 am

Bit late here i know but i fitted a v8 to my 2.25 engined 90 and was pleasantly surprised to find that according to microcat the gauge used was the same on both engines, i just had to spend a few quid on a new v8 sender.

I don't know if this applies to the Series, but guess it would. Like Chris said, Stage1 or 101 were both around at the same time and probably used the same gauges...

Even if the gauge doesnt read correctly, as long as you verify the temp is correct by some other means and you get used to where the needle usually sits then you'll know when things are going wonky. My old sender on the 2.25 was wrong and it always looked like it was stone cold!

101v8 · Post by **101v8** » Wed Dec 17, 2008 11:37 am

ChrisJC wrote:Yes, stage 1 or 101FC are worth a try.

101s use a capillary temperature gauge, not electrical.

satancom · Post by **satancom** » Wed Dec 17, 2008 3:51 pm

Quagmire wrote:
Even if the gauge doesnt read correctly, as long as you verify the temp is correct by some other means and you get used to where the needle usually sits then you'll know when things are going wonky. My old sender on the 2.25 was wrong and it always looked like it was stone cold!

Im happy the engine is running at the right temp and the fan cools it when switche don.. but with the engine at normal temp the gauge i way in the red, meaning if it started to over heat it wouldn't have far to climb!