5 replies to this topic

[Badshotbob]

Hi all, I have recently purchased a 1984 Mini Sprite. Everything seems to run fine, but the fuel / temp gauge is confusing me. It's a combined Smiths gauge with fuel at 10 o'clock, temp at 2 o'clock then a battery and oil light in the bottom half. The issue is that from cold, within 1 minute the temp gauge rises to about 3mm under the white line where the red section starts, and stays there - doesn't go into the red.

It seems like the gauge and the temp sender are not a match for each other, or, there is something wrong with the gauge. The fuel level seems to read more or less what I'd expect.

 

When I've searched google for images of Mini dashboards I've not found one yet which shows a fuel/temp gauge that matches what's in my car - so I'm wondering, could the gauge be an earlier/later one that won't read right with the temp sender I've got?

What gauge should be in a 1984 sprite?

I tried to add an image of my gauge but it seems that jpg and png (the two most common image formats) are not supported, so I hope my description will suffice.


 

[nicklouse]

Host your image in IMGUR and link to it.

this type?

 

 

[Badshotbob]

Similar layout to that, but has a white circle in the middle saying "Smiths", a bigger white circle on the outside saying "Fuel and Temp" instead of the fuel and temp icons, and the Temp shows H,N and C, doesn't have a white line for Normal, and doesn't have a blue bit for cold. So, layout the same, but all the graphics are different.

[Badshotbob]

Image of my gauge: https://imgur.com/a/arYUZaz

[cal844]

That's the pre 86 gauges, my 1980 998cc Clubman Estate does similar to what you describe, I think it is to do with guages and temperature sender compatibility and calibration

[Spider]

It's likely the sender is karput. I've had 2 do this on me now.

Disconnect the Green / Blue wire off the Sender when it's warmed up, it should stay down the cold end on the scale.

The Sender is just above the Alternator, on the Cylinder Head.