temp gauge early vs late

[mpwdhc]

hi guys,

last week the car seemed to suddenly settle down into running nicely. i took it on a reasonable trip and was delighted to find the trip computer click down to 11L/100km. my smugness was short lived when the cabin filled with steam from all the dash vents. there had been hints of oring leakage and figured i'd get around to it - but i think its safe to say this is more than orings!

i have just rebuilt the heads and refitted them with studs. at the time i did not replace the thermostat, but i did shortly after the steam event.

anyway to cut to the chase, now i've made myself so paranoid about running temperature and pressurisation that i i want to get the temp gauge working as it should - it had been settling at the end of the blue segment. i just presumed it was a temp sender, but today i noted the cluster is date stamped 96 - and the car is a 99 thor. this makes me wonder if the early and late clusters might be different in this regard?

[donh54]

No temperature gauge as fitted by the Rover factory is worth the dashboard space it takes up! Get a "real" temp gauge!

The factory (and many other makes as well), figured that people may be alarmed by seeing a gauge fluctuating all the time, so their response was to have a gauge that reads "normal" over a large part of the operating range of the engine temps. Like about 45 Deg C, to 115 Deg C. By the time the gauge reacts to a coolant loss or other overheating event, the bulk of the damage is already done. EA and EB Falcons were much the same, apparently.

Many, many threads on here and other forums regarding this issue.

[Scouse]

The temperature gauge you should have has a bare area where 'normal' is.
Prior to 1998, the gauge had a series of marks/lines in blue, white & red.

I'm not sure if they're interchangeable but as Don says, 'normal' covers a big temperature range. My '98 needle sits bang in the middle from 80odd to 105deg.

[mpwdhc]

thanks, and to Don too. the gems car stays bang in the middle. it seems i have the wrong instruments. i was going to order another sender, but thats pointless if the gauges are incompatible.




The temperature gauge you should have has a bare area where 'normal' is.
Prior to 1998, the gauge had a series of marks/lines in blue, white & red.

I'm not sure if they're interchangeable but as Don says, 'normal' covers a big temperature range. My '98 needle sits bang in the middle from 80odd to 105deg.

[donh54]

One option to consider is a Madman EMS setup. Programmable display, comes with adapters to use existing sensors, or the ones supplied with the kit. Not cheap, but very good quality. Has settable alarms and can be removed if you sell the vehicle

[TheTree]

I have an engine watchdog, works well but you need somewhere to mount it !

Steve