K Series - Temp?

[colinharding]

The last couple of times I've been out in the car, I've noticed the temp gauge reading very low, ie. near the 40'ish mark - and then it fluctuates upto about 80.

 

It never used to do this and the normal running temp. I believe is around 90 for a rover engine.

 

Does anyone have any suggestions - I've checked the oil and the coolant levels, and everything seems okay.... any ideas *confused*

 

Thanks in advance.

 

40th Anniversary No. 56

[Alex Birtwisle]

It could be the gauge or the sender.

 

I would hazard a guess it is the sender as I am on my 4th now. They don't seem to last very long before they start to give up the ghost ❗

 

It is worth buying a few spare temp senders and a spare oil pressure sender. They all seem to suffer when attached to a se7en.

 

Cheers

Alex

 

S713UMY

1.8K Viper Blue and Black

 

[Chris W]

Colin

 

I would bet it's the sender. I had the same symptoms on my new SV back in February when it was only a month old. It read normally (80degs) one day then next day would read only 40-50 degs then would occasionally jump back to 80degs for a while.

 

I got CC to change it at the first service and it's been OK since.

 

You can test the gauge itself by pulling the temp sender connector off the top of the sender and (with the ignition ON) short the connector to the chassis. The temp gauge should go right over full scale into the red sector. If it does the gauge is OK. You won't harm the gauge by doing this.

 

BTW, this is also the way to test the oil pressure gauge too, ie: pull the connector off the top of the oil pressure sender and short to the chassis. If gauge is OK it will go right over to the highest end of the scale.

 

Chris

 

1.8K SV 140hp see it here

[Gary G]

I agree. I had the same symptoms and it was the sender. For once, this is not an expensive part, but I found that Rover dealers do not have the right one. You'll need to go to Caterham...