9 replies to this topic

[tony kenobi]

Hey guys, a previous post of mine talked about my idle problems on my SPI mini, but having renewed and rebuilt the entire injection system, i'm living with it.

 

Good news- the car is pulling and driving better than ever after fitting a genuine Bosch lambda, genuine Rover/MG coolant sensor, new throttle sensor genuine, new air temp sensor and Maniflow LCB.

 

Now, I've another small issue that i hope someone can explain...

 

The car warms up as usual, dropping revs until the temp gauge shows just below half. PERFECT!

But on driving the car the temp hand moves up slightly to half way then slightly above the black line.

When I pull up at lights, it drops again to just below half, which is were it sat before I did the injection work. I;ve never seen it move this much from below mid, mid then slightly over mid and back down.

 

The thermostat has been replaced and checked, coolant sensor new (Genuine MG part), new fan, rad is minispares 2 core, coolant is soft water 50/50 with green coolant. 

I've never seen it move so much, I've flushed the system twice, bled it and checked for leaks etc but everything looks fine.

 

Has anyone seen this before? 

[spiguy]

My gauge does something similar, though mine sits at half way for 'normal' rather than just below half way. I have a code reader with live data, so my son and I took it out for a good blast on a hot day, and he monitored the ECU temperature value. What I found was that regardless of the gauge moving about a bit, the actual temperature wasn't changing anything like as much as I thought from reading the gauge. Say my gauge moved up about 2 needle thicknesses over the line, then I was thinking oh dear, it's starting to overheat, however the actual reading from the ECU had only gone from about 88 to 90 degrees.

 

What I take from this is that the gauge isn't particularly accurate, and maybe there are other factors (maybe my voltage regulator in the instruments is a bit iffy, or I have a slightly dodgy ground somewhere for example).

 

Do you or anyone you know have access to a code reader with live data ?

[tony kenobi]

Great reply thank you!!

I have an ACR4 unit which I have monitored the Coolant temp with, but only during idle. Mine sits at 82-84 so nothing out of the ordinary!
I'll try it while taking it out for a blast and watch what happens.

The reason I'm asking is that it never did it before I worked on it over the winter here, so it was a concern. I thought maybe the new water pump which is a minispares high flow pump, was moving more water around therefore causing the needle to move. Just a thought.

Sounds like your movement is similar to mine Spiguy, I guess you live with it

[jaydee]

Voltage regulator in the instrument binnacle playing up.

[spiguy]

Well, you do have a new coolant sensor and a different pump, so it could have an effect I suppose, though it could just be a compound effect adding on top of something like voltage regulator issues like jaydee says (and I suspect with mine). Do your test when driving and hopefully you'll see that nothing untoward is going on.

 

Best to take a passenger along rather than watch it yourself of course! 

[FlyingScot]

Cure for voltage regulator woes (from pinned FAQ's Electrical)

http://www.theminifo...tage-regulator/

FS

[tony kenobi]

Yes! thanks for that Flyingscot, seems like I've an evening with solder and dash out ahead of me. Will update this thread if it works.

[WiredbyWilson]

If you don't fancy the soldering part of that modification give me a shout as we make the modified regulators for centre clocks and classic fords. Adapting it for the later speedo wouldn't take much work.

 

David

[southlincspickup]

this is very intresting, my mini has a spi engine with center speedo set up (by me)

while sitting on the drive the temp gauge sits at normal, but as soon as i drive the gauge drops to cold

david (wired by Wilson) is this because I need the gauge altering? how much would this cost please?

thanks

[WiredbyWilson]

Southlincs - I'm not sure but it could be because the voltage is fluctuating and the original clocks coped with it but the older style witht he old regulator is a bit more tempremental.

 

I cannot guarantee that a solid state regulator would solve the issue but it sounds like it could help.

 

I supply the solid state conversion for £15 plus delivery.