Car suddenly started overheating. Well the gauge says it is . All the way to the red. Where to look first? Car was perfect the last week and then suddenly this

 

pretty odd I'd have to say. Check the mesh vent behind the tin- reach your hand over the top of the engine and you can feel it. sometimes that gets clogged. Also there could be a problem with the sending unit

 

I bought a dipstik-thermometer which was worth every penny of 40 bucks.

Then installed a aluminum oil cooler which changed everything. My 52 year old oil cooler had such dirty fins and was so fouled it was useless.

 

Is the fan belt still on? Could be that the oil cooler needs servicing. Did you check the oil level?

 

Thankseveryone,oil level good, new aluminum cooler fitted last year. It's gone to the shop to check but I think the gauge or sender is the problem

 

Can you let us know what the problem was?
Thanks

 

Yes, a sudden change like that is gauge or sender or bad ground.

 

Seems like bad sender so waiting on new one. Dip stick thermometer shows engine running very cool so no problem

 

You might want to check out 356registry threads about senders if you have a 6V system.

 

The sender works (if memory serves me correctly) by adjusting the resistance to ground. So a sudden full-scale deflection would most likely indicate a faulty sender or that the wire to it has gone to ground someplace. Happened to me once in the 914-6. In that case the wire came off the sender and was bouncing around causing rapid full-scale deflections of the needle. Cured by reattaching the wire. Disconcerting when it first happens though.