Temp gauge not working, ideas?

[delicat]

It's on my low roof that my wife is using... The temp gauge is not moving a bit, stucked at the bottom.

I've exchanged the temp sensor with another one but that didn't change anything.
I've also swapped the instrument cluster, no result.

So I've changed the thermostat, still no result.

Ideas? (if the thermostat was wrong to start with, could it explain why nothing worked before? Should I try the sensor and the actual gauge again?)

Thanks!

[marsgal42]

Assuming the engine is actually warming up (is it?), all that's left is the wiring.

...laura

[Green1]

even if the thermostat wasn't working, I would still expect SOME movement on the guage, so if you've checked (by replacing) the sensor, then all that's left is, as Laura said, the wiring.

Do the glow plugs seem to work right? they use the other wire on the same sensor... most likely though it's the wiring to the guage (or the guage itself)

[loki]

is your coolant flowing? your engine can get nice and hot but the temp gauge reads the temp of the coolant if I'm not mistaken, which happens more and more lately :() so if there is not flow do too a blockage or water pump not working your could get the same result.

[Green1]

is your coolant flowing? your engine can get nice and hot but the temp gauge reads the temp of the coolant if I'm not mistaken, which happens more and more lately :() so if there is not flow do too a blockage or water pump not working your could get the same result.

If the coolant isn't flowing at all, you'll still get some movement, the engine gets warm, in fact even warmer, if the coolant doesn't flow, and the sensor is in the top of the engine block.

[delicat]

There are 2 sensors side by side on the block. I checked the one with only 1 wire as that's what I believed to be the temp sensor. If it isn't the temp sensor then what is that one? I thought the 2 wires one was for glow plugs and ECU...

[Green1]

the 2 wires is the temperature sensor you are looking for, 1 wire is for the glow plugs, the other is for the dash guage.
As for what that other sensor is... I have no idea, I've been trying to figure that out too... possibly for an idiot light? (those are often seperate from the gauges themselves.

[mararmeisto]

Echoing Green1's comments: the single-wire temperature sensor... no-one knows where that goes; you should be looking at the two-wire sensor... that's the one to change.

And a word of experience: if you change it for a Lordco replacement, the gauge will not read the same as before. The gauge is calibrated to Mitsubishi's sensor, and the NAPOS replacements are not quite the same. Now, instead of my gauge reading around the lower third, it hovers around the middle (which I know is not quite right, there's not enough room for full-scale deflection).

I'd like to change my analog gauge for a digital read-out, that way I'd know what temperature is too hot: either 82C or 88C.

[delicat]

Well well well,

Falco showed up by the van yesterday to install some window clips and checked the idle and a few other things. Turns out the gauge is registering. Just need to check if it moves to just under the 1/2 way mark...

The moral of the story, never trust your other half to read a temp gauge!

Thanks again Falco!

[Green1]

Falco showed up by the van yesterday to install some window clips and checked the idle and a few other things. Turns out the gauge is registering. Just need to check if it moves to just under the 1/2 way mark...

If the guage moves, but not much beyond the top of the low indicator then you most likelky have a thermostat problem, many aftermarket thermostats do that by default, (and are therefore not the correct thermostat), the other possibility is that your thermostat isn't closing when it should, in either of those cases the correct choice is to replace the thermostat, if the water pump hasn't been replaced since the van came over I would take the opportunity to do that at the same time.

[delicat]

Thermostat just got changed with the proper one and my dear wife test drove the van for 1/2hr and it's not budging so I'm trying to convince her to visit Butch to swap the sensor... The saga continues!

[FalcoColumbarius]

I only had the engine running for maybe five minutes. The needle moved but no more than it would in the Miss Lil' Bitchi. I didn't drive it anywhere.