Td5 temperature gauge

[mools]

I seem to be having a few issues with my temperature gauge. Now I know people have their thoughts on this gauge but mine has always been pretty reliable (uninformative) until yesterday that is.

Yesterday on my drive home I noticed it did not move more than a few mm's past cold - unusual since one warmed up it usually resides about 2 mm's shy of dead center (no matter what) which, I believe, is what they should do as they are some type of normalised instrument.

So I had a better look at it today.

I have an after market coolant temp sender (located in an adaptor at the same place near the head as the OEM sender) which shows me getting up to (a believable) temp of around 90 - 93 deg, despite the needle on the land rover gauge not moving much at all. I set the nanocom evo up and that is telling me temp between 56 and 65 deg (much too low to be real during a sustained 100 kph).

The needle on the gauge (occasionally) lifts a little and tries to get towards the center (at the same time nanocom reading will lift to 75 - 84 deg) but this is short lived and is then drops back down to just above the blue marker

I test (pulse) the gauge with the Nanocom and it responds OK - well the needle blips up to the center and back.

What's going on here? Is it, as I think it may be, that the OEM temp sender knackered / playing up so the gauge gets false reading from the ECU and the Nanocom gets the same false info to display.

Can I just ignore the temp gauge and go off of my aftermarket one? Or is there a risk to the engine with the ECU thinking it is at a lower temp than it is? My understanding is the thermostat is mechanical so should operate as normal. The viscose fan does it's own, viscose, thing.

I'd appreciate the thoughts of any one with any similar experience or knowledge off this issue. I've recently changed the coolant (replaced OAT with OAT

Cheer,

Ian.

[Blknight.aus]

check your earths and your thermostats function.

[Yorkshire_Jon]

Id agree with Dave, much more likely to be a faulty earth connection somewhere - Id be checking the loom where youve spliced the EMS in.

Also, Im pretty sure the ecu wont be having anything to do with the after market sensor, unless it replaces the factory fitted one???

I agree with you Ian, at a sustained 100kph the engine will be hotter than 65 degrees. How hot is the expansion tank when its warmed up? I suspect bloody hot, approx 90-95ish!

As a test, if all earths look OK, you could run a new earth wire direct from the battery to the -ve side of the temp gauge and another direct to the engine block. Odds are one of those will show your gauge returning to just off centre.

Maybe see you at the Expo this weekend.



thinking about it a bit more, if the ecu is reporting low temps, suspect the issue isnt at the gauge but with the earth to the engine / sender unit.
Jon

[slug_burner]

I'd get the problem fixed as suggested by the others as the ECU will be running things according to the maps for the engine temp you are seeing on the Nanocom.

[LOVEMYRANGIE]

Or the thermostats sticking open.....

Using Capitals, the difference between helping your Uncle Jack off a horse or helping your uncle jack off a horse...

[Gonebush]

I had a similar problem, although it was on a 300TDI; my gauge was reading higher than normal, to the extent it was at times almost in the red. I tested the temperature in the expansion tank, it was normal. The clutch fan had already been replaced as was the water pump prior to this happening. I checked the connections on the engine sender unit, cleaned and checked the connections but still had the problem. I checked the connections to the temp gauge, they were tight and appeared OK. I disconnected them anyway and cleaned the connections.........end of problem. Even though the connections were tight and complete there was a slight build up on the connections, perhaps a bad earth, but it fixed my problem.

[maddos]

Yeah I fully had the same issue. Took the connector off the sensor/sender at the coolant top hose mount. Cleaned the contacts and now it's all good :)

[mools]

That's exactly what I did Maddos - it worked too. No more problems with the temp gauge. Simple things eh?