When sitting at idle, such as at a stop light, the needle will jerk up, somtimes it stays there and others it drops back. I"m not sure if the car is actaully heating up or not. Every part of the cooling system is new with the exception of the heater core and the water valve housing.
Anyone have a good test procedure? The Bentely doesnt cover this behaivor.
[Edit by Dave_in_VA on [TIME]1110728890[/TIME]]
Jerky temp gage problem >M>
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Dave_in_VA
- Posts: 425
- Joined: Feb 12, 2006
- Location: Baltimore, MD
No, I cheaped out and reused my old "good" sensor.
I'm betting that the sender is probably the problem. But since I am out of here in less than 2 weeks it wont get ordered and replaced until I get back.
As a side note about leaving for 6 months, I found out that Sprint PCS lets military suspend their cel phone accounts for up to 24 months with out paying monthy fees
I'm glad I mentioned why I was going to be gone when I asked them. Now I dont have to pay my cel bill while I'm out of the country, or have to lose my number.
I'm betting that the sender is probably the problem. But since I am out of here in less than 2 weeks it wont get ordered and replaced until I get back.
As a side note about leaving for 6 months, I found out that Sprint PCS lets military suspend their cel phone accounts for up to 24 months with out paying monthy fees
I'm glad I mentioned why I was going to be gone when I asked them. Now I dont have to pay my cel bill while I'm out of the country, or have to lose my number.
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Seymour in C'ville
- Posts: 360
- Joined: Feb 12, 2006
- Location: Ivy, Va.
Dave, if banging on the dash causes the temp gauge to settle down, your problem is most likely a bad electrical connection. Mine would leap into the red and give the driver, me, heart palpitations. I believe that I have finally fixed my problem by pulling the instrument cluster and cleaning every electrical connection with deoxIT. Also, I tightened the nut behind the temp gauge. I have not experienced the twitchy temp gauge problem since.
I had that problem in my '86 535i. Tightening the ground strap at the back of the valve cover did the trick. (The screw on the firewall was loose.) Tightening that screw also solved an intermittent stall.
It seems to me that tightening that screw shouldn't have done anything; the engine already has a perfectly good ground strap on the right engine mount. But there you have it.
[Edited 8/24/2008 to enable BBCode]
It seems to me that tightening that screw shouldn't have done anything; the engine already has a perfectly good ground strap on the right engine mount. But there you have it.
[Edited 8/24/2008 to enable BBCode]
Last edited by RonW on Aug 24, 2007 2:48 PM, edited 1 time in total.
I tried and tried to get my temp gauge to work. I replaced the sender, checked the wire, took apart the cluster and cleaned everything, inspected (x3). Finally got fed up and bought a 2" temp gauge from a boating store and installed it in the panel below the steering column. the sender is not the right spec, so it indicates that I am running at 210* when I am actually at 180*, but it has room to go up, so I can tell if I am overheating. I feel much better with it then the psyco gauge in the cluster. :@
I was waiting to see if others might offer an answer since I've not had to deal with this problem for a while, but do now on my "new" 535is. My recollection is that the problem is usually a bad connection where the combination gauge bolts to the instrument circuit board. I seem to remember some washer that sometimes got in the way or maybe just tighten the nut on the back of the cluster where the stud comes through for the combi gauge. I recall the mounting stud was the ground for the gauge, too, which is reason enough to look there. Or it could be a bad circuit board, what else is new.
I'll be looking into it on my car next week as soon as I get the diff problem solved and install all the brake parts I'm waiting for from Steve Haygood.
I'll be looking into it on my car next week as soon as I get the diff problem solved and install all the brake parts I'm waiting for from Steve Haygood.
Probably is worth not ruling out the wiring. My car has a new temperature sender and another gauge cluster. Before swapping clusters, the temp gauge was jumpy and read low. With the new cluster the gauge just reads low by about an hour (10:00-11 when warm). Way back when my parents bought the car in '92 the gauge pointed straight up.
And also with the new cluster my gas gauge jumps around but reads accurate. With my old cluster the gauge never jumped around, but read too low (about 1/4 tank off at all times). Argh!
And also with the new cluster my gas gauge jumps around but reads accurate. With my old cluster the gauge never jumped around, but read too low (about 1/4 tank off at all times). Argh!
Gent,
Now I hope that all of us know that you can adjust the needles on all the gauges. If it is reading a bit low, just adjust to fit. As for an earlier post on the needle always staying in the middle, the sending unit is located in the middle of the block, not on the housing anymore. That is how you get such a steady reading from the newer BMW's.
Now I hope that all of us know that you can adjust the needles on all the gauges. If it is reading a bit low, just adjust to fit. As for an earlier post on the needle always staying in the middle, the sending unit is located in the middle of the block, not on the housing anymore. That is how you get such a steady reading from the newer BMW's.
[QUOTE="booker535"]Pics of my setup:
[/QUOTE]
That's slick! Have you got a write-up on it?
[QUOTE="Dave_in_VA"]When sitting at idle, such as at a stop light, the needle will jerk up, somtimes it stays there and others it drops back. I"m not sure if the car is actaully heating up or not. Every part of the cooling system is new with the exception of the heater core and the water valve housing.[/quote]
I've had the same problem on mine. I cleaned the grounding posts, tightened connections, checked the traces on the SI board and replaced the Temperature Sender and it was still jumpy and/or non-operative.
I finally replaced my '85 SI board with an '86 SI board and all is well. I picked it up at the local scrap yard for $30. The '86 board is just built better. The electronic difference between both boards is significant.
[Edit by RobbieR on [TIME]1110816591[/TIME]]
[/QUOTE]That's slick! Have you got a write-up on it?
[QUOTE="Dave_in_VA"]When sitting at idle, such as at a stop light, the needle will jerk up, somtimes it stays there and others it drops back. I"m not sure if the car is actaully heating up or not. Every part of the cooling system is new with the exception of the heater core and the water valve housing.[/quote]
I've had the same problem on mine. I cleaned the grounding posts, tightened connections, checked the traces on the SI board and replaced the Temperature Sender and it was still jumpy and/or non-operative.
I finally replaced my '85 SI board with an '86 SI board and all is well. I picked it up at the local scrap yard for $30. The '86 board is just built better. The electronic difference between both boards is significant.
[Edit by RobbieR on [TIME]1110816591[/TIME]]
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Madhungarian
- Posts: 716
- Joined: Feb 12, 2006
- Location: San Jose CA
Robbie,
The install was pretty straight-forward.
The wiring is easy. One wire goes to the sending unit, one wire goes to 12V power, one wire goes to 12V signal (I used the aux. fuse box for these), and one is a ground. I used the stock BMW sending unit. Like I said earlier, it reads high, but it is still more accurate than the stock gauge. I think a resistor wired in somewhere would drop it to a more reasonable number. Haven't figured out what resistance it needs, though.
Installing the gauge in the panel was a little more tricky. You want the face of the gauge to be vertical, so you can't just cut a hole straight through the panel. I eyeballed it, measured, scratched my head, and figured I would cut the hole at approx. 15* from the vertical. (If that part of the panel is laying horizontal on a table. Your drill would look like this _\_ ) What you end up with is an oblong looking hole that is perfectly circular when viewed head on. Ideally, you would want to use a drill press with a nice, fine tooth hole saw. I used a coarse tooth wood hole saw, and my body as a drill press. :~ It came out OK. I have a spare panel I plan on doing right.
After the hole was cut, the gauge was a little loose, so I wrapped it in a couple of layers of electrical tape. Now it is nice and snug. It's not rigidly mounted anywhere, though. I can pull it out with ease.
I hope that makes sense. Let me know if you have any follow up Qs.
The install was pretty straight-forward.
The wiring is easy. One wire goes to the sending unit, one wire goes to 12V power, one wire goes to 12V signal (I used the aux. fuse box for these), and one is a ground. I used the stock BMW sending unit. Like I said earlier, it reads high, but it is still more accurate than the stock gauge. I think a resistor wired in somewhere would drop it to a more reasonable number. Haven't figured out what resistance it needs, though.
Installing the gauge in the panel was a little more tricky. You want the face of the gauge to be vertical, so you can't just cut a hole straight through the panel. I eyeballed it, measured, scratched my head, and figured I would cut the hole at approx. 15* from the vertical. (If that part of the panel is laying horizontal on a table. Your drill would look like this _\_ ) What you end up with is an oblong looking hole that is perfectly circular when viewed head on. Ideally, you would want to use a drill press with a nice, fine tooth hole saw. I used a coarse tooth wood hole saw, and my body as a drill press. :~ It came out OK. I have a spare panel I plan on doing right.
After the hole was cut, the gauge was a little loose, so I wrapped it in a couple of layers of electrical tape. Now it is nice and snug. It's not rigidly mounted anywhere, though. I can pull it out with ease.
I hope that makes sense. Let me know if you have any follow up Qs.