Gauge help needed

[Ranjan]

Guys,

Can you help...... I have the below gauges fitted




and the peak alarm on the water temp gauge has been set at 98 degrees and so is constantly beeping away and driving the guys putting mileage on the car crazy.
How do we change the alarm setting to a higher figure?

Thanks

Ranjan.

[nightfire10]

Hi ranjan on mine hold the button in with ignition off then turn ignition on then relase button then you can press and hold to get it to move up or down ! Turned mine off as it got annoying LOL

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

[Ranjan]

Steve,

Thanks for that will pass on the instructions.
Hope it works....

Ranjan.

[GreySilver Beast]

Here you go:

R-Spec Gauges.jpg

[Ranjan]

Thank you Malcolm, that worked; golden silence

Ranjan.

[mrspiller]

Isn’t 98 a tad high ?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[mrspiller]

Unless I'm miss understanding what the peak alarms function should be.. My coolant temps generally 105 or above for normal driving. So 98 would be sitting in normal range as far as I'm aware?

[mrspiller]

Unless I'm miss understanding what the peak alarms function should be.. My coolant temps generally 105 or above for normal driving. So 98 would be sitting in normal range as far as I'm aware?

I hope your right , mine buzzes at 98 too . So if 105 is safe I’m happy


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[13Black]

98 isn't high.
I've had >110'C temps before.

[Ninja_Freak]

98 isn't high.
I've had >110'C temps before.

98 is normal for me. On track I hit 112 as a peak.

NF

[mrspiller]

It very much depends where the sensor has been fitted, within the coolant flow.

The input to the radiator should be waaaay hotter than the output.

My preference would be the output to the cabin heater loop, as this is a much more consistent indication of actual engine temp without the sudden change as the cooling fans kick in


Sent from my SM-G800F using Tapatalk

[mrspiller]

It very much depends where the sensor has been fitted, within the coolant flow.

The input to the radiator should be waaaay hotter than the output.

My preference would be the output to the cabin heater loop, as this is a much more consistent indication of actual engine temp without the sudden change as the cooling fans kick in


Sent from my SM-G800F using Tapatalk

I never thought of that - mines on the upper coolant hose ........


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Ranjan]

Yup,

It all depends where the sensor is; I deliberately placed mine on the input side as I like to know the max values rather than the normals; gives me a margin to play with.
Alarm is now set to 110.

Ranjan.

[Eddie_r32]

98 isn't high.
I've had >110'C temps before.

Amateur!

[casey]

I have my sensor on the coolant output hose and have alarm set at 112.

On a very hot day on track the alarm will occasionally trigger after 5-10 minutes. Some short-shifting will bring the temp down very quickly.

[warpc0il]

I don't need a coolant temperature gauge, as my coolant level sensor is just at the stage where increased system pressure is enough to squeeze the float and make it sink - so the level light comes on.

Hold the revs above 7-8krpm through the gears for more than 15 minutes and the light comes on, drop the revs and cruise, and the light goes off again.

Just a couple of thoughts related to coolant temp sensors...
- the "normal" coolant temp should always be above 100C, which is why the system is pressurised to prevent boiling. This also means that, if the system looses pressure, e.g. through a loose tank cap, then it will boil-over at 100C, which looks like "overheating" but isn't.
- having a sensor mounted high up in the system means that, if there is a loose of coolant, the gauge may climb for a very short time (sometimes only a few seconds) and then it will drop back to "normal" and then can indicate that the engine is cooler than normal, since the sensor is now in an empty pipe and the engine is about to go bang.

This is exactly what happened on my Alfa many years ago.
The radiator was hit by a stone, the system lost pressure and then started loosing coolant through the hole.
The sensor for the temperature gauge is on the side of the thermostat housing, so quite high in the system.
I didn't see the gauge go up but I did notice that it went down below normal, despite the car "smelling hot" - as a result of the sprayed coolant splashing back onto the exhaust manifold.
Fortunately I pulled over and it was clear than the engine was cooking and nearly boiled dry.
I had access to temperature sensitive stickers through work, which have calibrated blocks that turn black if that temperature is reached. Each sticker is a strip of blocks stepping from say 90C to 130C (for engine) 120C to 180C (for brakes) etc. Anyway, all my engine stickers were black from end-to-end, and some had started to melt
The engine survived undamaged but the excess heat was sufficient to destroy the lower radiator hose and, as I found later, melt a section of the engine bay wiring loom.

The moral of the story is; don't assume that a gauge showing high temps is always a bad thing, or that low temps are good thing.

[Ranjan]

Guys,

Further clarification needed; the feedback from the drivers' is that the instructions for increasing the limit works fine but that everytime the car is restarted after a break, the limit resets itself to 98 again; not too much of a problem to reset it again but is there something else to do we are missing to make it a permanent change?

Ta.

Ranjan.

[GreySilver Beast]

Ranjan did you hold the button down once you had changed the setting as it should bleep and then do it's sweep to set it

I think that's how mine set

[Mpv2k3]

Mines the same. You can change it as above but once the car is switched off it resets to the original setting.

[casey]

Very odd, I used those instructions on my car (same R-Spec gauges) and the alarm limit is most certainly retained on switch off, as is the highest peak reading. It would be a right pain to redo the alarms on every start-up!

Thought, I believe theses gauges require a permanent live feed to retain their memory. Maybe your gauges have a switched live feed? Just a guess on my part. The wiring diagram I have isn't clear at all on this, just showing a +ve (so IMPLYING permanent live, not ACC, switched feed) and -ve feed to the gauges, BUT the diagram does show ACC (switched +ve feed) for the illumination options......

[13Black]

They might not be wired in correctly.

I believe something along the lines of: red to a constant 12V supply (to keep it remembering the settings).
And yellow to a switchable 12V that actually powers the gauge and lights it up.

Something like that anyway, maybe.

[Mpv2k3]

Screenshot_20190731-153808_Drive.jpg

[Mpv2k3]

Screenshot_20190731-153927_Drive.jpg

[Mpv2k3]

May be of help

[casey]

Thought, I believe theses gauges require a permanent live feed to retain their memory. Maybe your gauges have a switched live feed? Just a guess on my part. The wiring diagram I have isn't clear at all on this, just showing a +ve (so IMPLYING permanent live, not ACC, switched feed) and -ve feed to the gauges, BUT the diagram does show ACC (switched +ve feed) for the illumination options......

They might not be wired in correctly.

I believe something along the lines of: red to a constant 12V supply (to keep it remembering the settings).
And yellow to a switchable 12V that actually powers the gauge and lights it up.

Something like that anyway, maybe.

Seems Mr Melon is thinking the same as me

In fact, the diagram Marc posted up above is slightly different to mine and clearly states "constant 12v" on the red wire, so I'm now pretty sure this is the issue - there is a switched +ve feed to your gauges,wher it should be permanent, so gauge memories are lost when IGN off.

I now recall that Aston, who fitted my gauges (with me hampering/helping), went to great lengths to secure a constant 12v feed.