Dash warning light weirdness

[jimrat]

Hi

Been having problems with my dash warning lights. The last month the temperature warning light is flashing constantly, though there is plenty of coolant and it is not overheating. In January the battery light was flickering, then cleared itself. Occasionally, especially on long runs, the oil light and indicator light will be faintly illuminated.

I've checked the condition of the earth 'crown' points by the fuse box, plus the earths in the engine bay. Are there any connections in the dash pod that need refreshing? Do the dash clusters go bad?

Cheers
Jim

[MidLifeCrisis]

The last month the temperature warning light is flashing constantly, though there is plenty of coolant and it is not overheating.

Pull the connector off the coolant level sensor and jumper the two terminals together with a piece of wire (or paper clip) - does that fix the flashing when you turn ignition to on ?
If the light does stop flashing then the sensor is not working - might just need cleaning (the prongs that dip into the coolant get furred up) or maybe replacing.
If the light still flashes - pull out the 42/43 relay from the fuse box area (not sure what year your van is so location will vary) - does this fix the flashing problem?
Return here with your findings??

[danmetallic]

Hi

Been having problems with my dash warning lights. The last month the temperature warning light is flashing constantly, though there is plenty of coolant and it is not overheating. In January the battery light was flickering, then cleared itself. Occasionally, especially on long runs, the oil light and indicator light will be faintly illuminated.

I've checked the condition of the earth 'crown' points by the fuse box, plus the earths in the engine bay. Are there any connections in the dash pod that need refreshing? Do the dash clusters go bad?

Cheers
Jim

hi Jim,

What did you do when you checked the crowns underneath the dash? I was having some strangeness going on and it wasn't until I took all the spades and redid them with new ones that my dash problems well. Visually they might look fine until you remove them. There only needs to be a slight difference in resistance sure to a tiny bit of spade corrosion and it throws everything out.

Also is the long plug in the back right of the dash securely in? Good luck.

[jimrat]

Hi

A bit more info:

The temp light is initially off, but then comes on after a few minutes of driving, and stays on. When it first happened then temp gauge went quite high as well, but since the first instance, it now jus sits centrally, over the LED, where it usually sits. The van is running fine - we did a 400 mile round trip this weekend. Didn't lose any coolant or overheat; not down on power.

I checked/cleaned the prongs on level sensor, but this made no difference. The wiring in the engine bay to the level and temp 2 sensor all looks ok.
I removed both earth crowns and cleaned everything up (was ok anyway), and also removed dash pod and cleaned circuit board connector. Still red light flashing constantly.

When I remove relay 42 from the fuse box the light goes out, the light comes on intermittently while driving.

Cheers
Jim

[MidLifeCrisis]

Did you try jumpering the two terminals of the level sensor connector together - see if that changes anything?
And are you saying that the light still flashed intermittently with the relay 42 removed , or did removing the relay stop the light flashing?
Does the light flash for a few seconds when you first turn on the ignition?

[jimrat]

The light flashes initially when the ignition goes on. It then goes out, and some time later (usually < 5 minutes), it starts flashing continuously.

With relay 42 removed, the light still flashed, but it would go out for a while, then come on again. If I understand the wiki, this points to the temp sender loop being the source of the problem?

No, I haven't tried shorting the terminals of the level sensor yet.

Cheers
Jim

[jimrat]

I found a damaged section of insulation on the yellow/red wire that connects to the temp sender (the sender with the black connector that points towards the front of the van) - so I spliced in a new piece of cable. However, I still get the red flashing light on the temp gauge. Close but no cigar

This is doing my head in now - any ideas?

[jimrat]

Turned out to be the multipin connector in the box in the engine bay

[danmetallic]

Turned out to be the multipin connector in the box in the engine bay

Good work, well done!