Temp guage reading high?

[ady]

Purchased a nice 1989, 1.9 4 speed camper last Sunday. Its a pretty tidy example with low owners and a complete and comphrensive service history.
We have just had a nice weekend away in Wales with the van and ive noticed that the temp guage reads high once van been driven a few miles. The guage settles about half way between centre and red. We were in stop start traffic yesterday and the cooling fan kicked in albeit guage had moved a little closer to red, although wasnt in red. Have since returned home, let the engine cool down and there are no leaks and no loss of coolant. Could this be as simple as a faulty thermostat? Thanks in advance.

[ghost123uk]

It could be nothing to worry about at all. These vans temperature gauges can be quite variable. As long as it remains constantly like this, ie it doesn't sometimes read much higher, or much lower, under similar operating conditions, I wouldn’t worry. The radiator fan is coming on when it should, so that is good.

If you did want to look for a culprit, then in my humble opinion, it would go in this order, first the temperature sender, note there are 2 close to each other, the one that works the gauge should be the one that faces the front of the van on the plastic thermostat housing (the other works the manifold pre heater iirc). Next would be the gauge itself. Next would be the 10 Volt regulator thingy, less likely, these normally fail so the gauge (and the fuel gauge) fail to work at all. Lastly would be the thermostat itself, though these also normally fail "open" and causes the motor to rarely reach the correct temperature.

Keep an eye on the level of both white coolant tanks, always a good idea, especially on a new to you van. The one to the left should be full to the very brim, the other should be about half full when the engine is cold.

Some may say it might also be worth bleeding the coolant system. The details of which are all in our "wiki", links to this are near the top left of every page on here. It's a bit of a faff the first time you do it, gets easier if you have to do it often (remembers years ago when my cooling system got heavily contaminated with oil). I'm betting yours doesn't need it

[ady]

It could be nothing to worry about at all. These vans temperature gauges can be quite variable. As long as it remains constantly like this, ie it doesn't sometimes read much higher, or much lower, under similar operating conditions, I wouldn’t worry. The radiator fan is coming on when it should, so that is good.

If you did want to look for a culprit, then in my humble opinion, it would go in this order, first the temperature sender, note there are 2 close to each other, the one that works the gauge should be the one that faces the front of the van on the plastic thermostat housing (the other works the manifold pre heater iirc). Next would be the gauge itself. Next would be the 10 Volt regulator thingy, less likely, these normally fail so the gauge (and the fuel gauge) fail to work at all. Lastly would be the thermostat itself, though these also normally fail "open" and causes the motor to rarely reach the correct temperature.

Keep an eye on the level of both white coolant tanks, always a good idea, especially on a new to you van. The one to the left should be full to the very brim, the other should be about half full when the engine is cold.

Some may say it might also be worth bleeding the coolant system. The details of which are all in our "wiki", links to this are near the top left of every page on here. It's a bit of a faff the first time you do it, gets easier if you have to do it often (remembers years ago when my cooling system got heavily contaminated with oil). I'm betting yours doesn't need it

Many thanks, appreciate your reply

[Mr Bean]

Yes my sender went open circuit a couple of months ago and when I fitted a new one it reads just to the right of the red warning light. Otherwise it tracks my driving conditions perfectly as before, creeping up in heavy traffic and halting when the rad fan cuts in.
CS