Silly question, I know. Bear with me.
Symptom 1: I'm driving on the highway, and out of nowhere the temp gauge jumps up to full red within an instant. It then goes back down to normal, and bounces around a bit...back and forth between normal and super high, very erratically. This, to me, seemed to be clean-cut sender or gauge issue.
Symptom 2: Symptom 1 goes away and turns into sustained temp that's not in the red, but definitely above normal...though with moments where the needle jumps down to normal immediately, then right back up to being too hot.
Symptom 3: Now i've stopped driving the car, because the temp gauge will gradually go up, and stay steady, a little bit under the red. No more jumping around erratically.
I put a new sender in. No change. There's no noise from the water pump. The mechanical fan works fine. The electric fan is NOT kicking on with the car idling and the temp reading high (both low and high switches are new, as is the resistor). The t-stat seems to be opening fine.
Temps read with an infared thermometer:
135-140º on the heater hoses (both sides of the t-stat are about the same).
180-185º on the thermostat housing.
I know there are some insulating properties to the hoses and t-stat housing. But a reading near the red should mean that the temp is 250º or above, I would presume. Readings of 185º max seems a bit low for something that's supposedly overheating. The electric fan should kick on if it's overheating.
Thoughts? At first, it seemed electrical. But the gauge behavior is acting legit now. However, the infared thermometer readings and electric fan behavior don't support it.
Symptom 1: I'm driving on the highway, and out of nowhere the temp gauge jumps up to full red within an instant. It then goes back down to normal, and bounces around a bit...back and forth between normal and super high, very erratically. This, to me, seemed to be clean-cut sender or gauge issue.
Symptom 2: Symptom 1 goes away and turns into sustained temp that's not in the red, but definitely above normal...though with moments where the needle jumps down to normal immediately, then right back up to being too hot.
Symptom 3: Now i've stopped driving the car, because the temp gauge will gradually go up, and stay steady, a little bit under the red. No more jumping around erratically.
I put a new sender in. No change. There's no noise from the water pump. The mechanical fan works fine. The electric fan is NOT kicking on with the car idling and the temp reading high (both low and high switches are new, as is the resistor). The t-stat seems to be opening fine.
Temps read with an infared thermometer:
135-140º on the heater hoses (both sides of the t-stat are about the same).
180-185º on the thermostat housing.
I know there are some insulating properties to the hoses and t-stat housing. But a reading near the red should mean that the temp is 250º or above, I would presume. Readings of 185º max seems a bit low for something that's supposedly overheating. The electric fan should kick on if it's overheating.
Thoughts? At first, it seemed electrical. But the gauge behavior is acting legit now. However, the infared thermometer readings and electric fan behavior don't support it.
Comment