water temp gauge question

[ahardb0dy]

My 94 PF temp gauge never goes above a 1/4 but today got stuck on the turnpike for over an hour in bumper to bumper traffic (due to road work or something), I would have expected the temp to go up a little higher than normal but it was actually lower than normal. I thought the sender may have been bad so a while back I replaced it with a used one out of the original engine but the gauge still was reading the same as with the sender I had in it. Do the gauges go bad or is this just as hot as these engines get? I just put a new fan clutch in about 2 months ago.

[JamesRich]

Pull the wire off your sensor and short it to ground. The gage should peg out hot, with it unplugged and key on it should stay all the way cold.

James

[silverton]

my temp guage never moves from just a bit below the middle after it's been running for a bit, even while wheeling!

[adamzan]

Mine goes lower a bit too when sitting in traffic. I think my fan clutch is starting to bind as as soon as the traffic frees up it sounds like a bus for the first bit. Never used to do that at this time of year.

[sewebster]

The FSM has resistance specs for the sender (you replaced the right one, right, not the sensor with the bigger plug?). So you can put it in a pot of water with a thermometer and check to see if the sender is working. But it does seem weird that both would have the same problem. Mine does run a bit low though too (resistance is a bit off).

[Daves94XE]

if u have access to a voltmeter here are the factory specs for the temp sensors...

eng temp volts resist. ohm

20c/68f 3.5v 2.1-2.9k 50c/122f 2.2 v .068-1.00k

90c/194f .9 v .236-.260k

[Alkorahil]

clean the wire harness connectors and make sure the wires are not broken. Mine did this and that was the remedy.

Edited November 24, 2010 by Alkorahil