Temperature gauge

My car suffered from an erratic gauge. In particular, it would drop to zero when accelerating hard, then read normally. Very annoying…

The temperature sender is well hidden down the back of the engine. There are two sensors, just above the flywheel housing – one is for the Motronic, the other is for the gauge. The wires are very close to the bulkhead. Under heavy load, the engine movement was pulling the wires and causing a bad contact.

There should be enough cable to form a ‘loop’. Ensure that the cable loop doesn’t catch on the bulkhead or the engine. Also check that the connections are clean and tight. The problem was fixed by routing the wires properly. It’s a good idea to keep an eye on the wire to the Motronic sensor – amazingly the engine will run just fine if the wire becomes detached, but it doesn’t exactly help with fuel economy…

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