Club 80-90 Forums

The Temp Gauge on my 1985 1.9 Petrol van works fine sometimes, but sometimes swings violently into overheat (to the right). Engine doesnt seem to actually be running hot (eg Fan doesnt kick in, and red light doesnt blink) when so indicated, and i've driven OK for hundreds of miles with it like this. Should I bother trying to diagnose/sort it out, or just live with the uncertainty?

Cheers Ian

Normally, if the temp guage swings over to the right the coolant LED should start flashing. I personally would want my gauge functioning correctly and be absolutely sure there is no issue with the cooling system. It may well be an electrical fault but, if some time in the future, you do develop a cooling system fault, you will be thinking that it's just the gauge playing up and ignore it. I would not risk that TBH.

I would bleed the cooling sytem in case there was an air lock due to loss of coolant and check the condition of the wires/connections at the coolant temperature sender as a starting point.

have you looked in the engine bay for your sender.. is it connected OK?
is the wire in good nick?.
I would agree with Angelo and I suspect a curcuit fault too.

lardlad123 wrote:The Temp Gauge on my 1985 1.9 Petrol van works fine sometimes, but sometimes swings violently into overheat (to the right). Engine doesnt seem to actually be running hot (eg Fan doesnt kick in, and red light doesnt blink) when so indicated, and i've driven OK for hundreds of miles with it like this. Should I bother trying to diagnose/sort it out, or just live with the uncertainty?

Cheers Ian

My temp guage stopped working full time about 2 years ago. It works during Spring and Summer but packs up again in the Autumn. So far this year it has worked from April to end of August and then stopped again. Started again yesterday. As far as I am concerned, as long as the fan kicks in when necessary, I am not bothered.
Patrick

I know this is a bit of an old thread, but it's also the closest to some issues I've been having, so I thought I'd share my findings and solution.

With the ignition on the gauge would swing up to the top of the scale (just under the top line) after 20-30secs, then seemed to move up from there as if the sender was actually working once the engine was running.

Anyway, after doing continuity checks of all the wiring and replacing the voltage regulator on the back of the instrument cluster I narrowed it down to a dodgy relay. Sure enough, popped in a No.43 from my old Scirocco and everything works again!

is,nt it great that our van change with the seasons gotta love them