Coolant temp sender (brown) resistance range?

[BigD]

I want to put a status panel in my car with the S52. I've got an oil distribution block coming that will solve the oil temp/pressure sender issue but I also want to add a water temp readout.

I want to get my dad to make me a bright LCD panel that will show a bar graph of temperatures and a number beside it, and have an audible alarm for bad levels. The oil senders I'm buying are explicit about their range (10-180 Ohm for the VDO spec) but I'm not sure what to do about the water temp. Since I'm going to be installing the brown E30 temp sender for the gauge cluster (I still want to keep all the stock gauges operational), I wonder if I can just splice into that. I've tried searching for the p/n but I can't find a spec for it. It says VDO on it... Anyone know? Is it the standard 10-180 (and waht temperature range does that equate to)?

[Jean]

Cool idea, measure it

[BigD]

Hrm... in hot water from my water dispenser it reads 145, and at room temperature it's 430 or so. Weird range. I thought resistance goes up as the temp goes up? So for the 10-180 ohm, 10 is the peak temperature and 180 is cold??

[Mike325]

It all depends if it has an NTC or PTC transistors. One will have the resistance go up as temp goes up and vice-versa.

[ian332isport]

It all depends if it has an NTC or PTC transistors.

I think you mean thermistors. Not transistors in the temp sender :)