Thread: overheating or I thought so ???

A classic defender earthing issue.

I have had several call outs over the years with these exact symptoms.

To test the theory, put a jumper cable between the battery negative and any part of the seat box/ body, and try the lamps again etc.
If everything returns to normal, just run an extra earth wire from the batt neg to the base of one of the seat bolts.
I have a 130 that because of its use on beaches etc the minute bits of corrosion between body panels etc caused a similar fault. Rather than laboriously trace the faulty/ poor earth, I ran an extra earth wire to the body straight from the battery to the base of a passenger seat bolt and all is fine!

JC

Thank you JC will go down stairs and try it now
Cheers mate

Having or even suspecting the problem of inaccurate readings from an electrical temperature gauge is probably an extra excuse for replacing it with a capillary tube one. It seems others have, at least partly because they should give more accurate readings. Intend installing one I have on my 300Tdi Defender but it is presently well down in job priorities.

my Defender '93, has an aftermarket "Speco" temp guage in her,
she reads about 95c when cruising at 90, lower at idle.
when i push up to 100 or 110, or maintain speed up a slight incline, the temp quickly rises to 100c to 105c.

As this is a celcius only guage, i have no idea if this is normal temp or too hot.
What is the running temp normally and can i even rely on this guage as being accurate?

thanks.
Glen

As mentioned the problem is certain to be an earthing problem, but not necessarily body to chassis. It is just as likely to be the actual earth on the gauge itself. If it is the same as the 110, all the earth wires for the separate instruments end in a tag, and all the tags plus one for an earth to the bulkhead are gathered together under one of the gauge mounting nuts. If this nut is loose, you get these symptoms. The giveaway that it is an earth problem is that the reading changes when the lights are switched on and off, which is because the instrument lights use the same earth.

John

As mentioned, mine is getting hotter when accelerating/increasing the load, going up hill... lights on/off makes no difference.
This Speco Guage has no light in it either.
Glen

id say ur up for a new radiator or get old one cleaned

or it could be the fan, like mentioned in the thread just started today about how to replace it. sounds like a better bet than replacing the Rad!!