Thread: Temperature gauge slightly past dead centre

Have you checked the earths.
My temperature gauge fluctuated higher if I turned on heater, headlights, heated rear screen etc.
If the temperature gauges moves with heavy load, check earths.

You can check the temp cheaply with the Torque Pro app for smartphones. You'll also need a wireless elms plug in unit

Originally Posted by kapowww

By overheat do you mean above middle or past the H?

Well, that's a difficult one. Probably past 3/4. If the almost invisible red light comes on on the dash, it's probably too hot.

Re the heater, turning it on seems to make little difference because water flows through it all the time - there is no water tap. Having said that, I've not actually checked the flow diagrams to see if water flows through the heater core when the thermostat is closed.

My radiator was severely clogged.

Thanks for all the replies guys. I burped the system again, and blew some coolant out of the return tube from the radiator when it was cold. I drove it around my suburb a bit at night, then in stop-start peak hour traffic yesterday morning and then smooth highway on the way back home and it stayed pretty much dead centre. The parallax error freaked me out a bit.

It did start rising at one point after about 35 minutes in the peak hour traffic when I arrived at my destination. It went to about halfway to the next white line but I had to run in so couldn't really test any more. I'll try to bleed it once more but there was definitely a pocket of air in there that caused the fluctuations when stationary.

Don't think there's any issues with the ground connections. The radiator could be a bit clogged too so I'll budget for a new one soon.

The green/red coolant mix is apparent now and is starting to look a bit brown (checked at night with a flashlight so need to check during the day) so I'll have to do another bloody flush and fill.

Are you sure the correct coolant is red? I thought LRs used green. Mine certainly does.
My temperature needle never moves above about one-third, no matter what the conditions are like. Mind you, the gauge system is notorious for not giving a high reading until its too late.
A few years ago mine was obviously on the edge of failing, although it hadn't actually happened, so I had it replaced before I went to Cape York. Best thing I ever did as far as peace of mind goes.
Have you checked the thermostat? A replacement could be a cheap fix if that is the problem.
As P38 said, whatever you do, don't let it overheat. Fix the problem now.



Sent from my GT-P5210 using AULRO mobile app

Originally Posted by DiscoMick

Are you sure the correct coolant is red? I thought LRs used green. Mine certainly does.

Have you checked the thermostat? A replacement could be a cheap fix if that is the problem.
As P38 said, whatever you do, don't let it overheat. Fix the problem now.

Yes it's supposed to use green but the mechanics put red in (which from here I read isn't harmful). I had a coolant leak so the tank was empty and I didn't know what was in there so ended up with a mix. The leak's been fixed by the mechanic now..

I've read much about preventing the overheating so I'm eagle-eyed while driving and seem to always watch the temp gauge.. It's probably more dangerous than texting while driving!

Just be cautios mixing coolants i'm sure i read somewhere that its not advisable to mix coolants as they can react to each other. I stand corrected if wrong but sure its not good!

It depends what year the P38 is to what coolant you run.

From memory it's the green gear for gems and the red stuff for Thor. I've run red for a few years, and I haven't had major dramas, have a few leaky welch plugs at the moment, but I fear they are 15 years old so they've done their job!

Otherwise, no temp issues even idling through the bush on 40+ degree North Queensland summer days. Mine sits bang-on half way on the gauge and never strays.

Cheers
Keithy