1987 1.9 T25 watercooled temp gauge

[Sunnyside]

One of my hire vans has had the temp gauge reading somewhere in between the red warning light and max say 1/4 inch above the light and the light is about 1/2 way in the gauge.
Is this correct. its been like it since I bought the van a month or so ago but I need to make sure.
Any help please??
Frank

[R0B]

Mine sits well below the warning light.Your radiator fan is meant to kick in once the needle reaches warning light.Your fan should be running constantly if yours is above the light.

[Brian68]

Mines a 1.7 diesel and the needle sits bang on the led sitting at an indicated 60mph and the same around town,i kept a good eye on it today as i had seen your post while at work and was using the camper to get to work lately as my cars broken down. Wouldn't do any harm to stick in a new thermostat(Brickwerks).

[Sunnyside]

thanks guys.
Had whole system flushed today , new thermostat and refilled with G12 plus. Still sits 1/4inch above red light no matter what. Fans kick in and out. Laser temp reader measured engine temp at different points for about 1/2 hour. Max temp seen was 90 just before the thermo opened then it dropped down to 82 iirc. ans cycled in between those temps for the whole 1/2 hour it was tested. I'm tending to think the gauge is reading incorrect. I took the van for a 60 mph drive , about 10 miles and the temp didn't go up any more.

[meridian911]

if the temp senders been replaced by one from GSF then thats your problem.
They have too high a resistance from cold so make the gauge read higher than it should,measured a few with my ohmeter and they all read about 8 or 9 ohms more than the original(leaking) one that i had.
i tried a few before i gave in and brought a proper one with my next brickwerks order.

[Sunnyside]

if the temp senders been replaced by one from GSF then thats your problem.
They have too high a resistance from cold so make the gauge read higher than it should,measured a few with my ohmeter and they all read about 8 or 9 ohms more than the original(leaking) one that i had.
i tried a few before i gave in and brought a proper one with my next brickwerks order.

Thanks for the reply Guys.
I'm not sure where the sensor came from but its a good starting point. Will get it looked at the next maintenance period.