BoostBuggy

Hey we (MooreBoost & I) are still working on my 951 and it's now showing weird behavior in regards to the temp guage.

When the engine is running the temp guage (needle) is reading at the bottom of the red zone but car runs like normal. Turn engine off and turn ignition back to on and the temp guage reads normal i.e. 1st white mark.

Any thoughts on what could be causing this?

BTW, we are also noticing the volt guage is reading lower (needle slightly below 12) than normal and the oil pressure is reading about 0 at idle.

txhokie4life

Bad ground connection?

There is a ring connector on the back of the gauges which can work its
way loose.

Worth checking.

see if just wiggling the wires behind the dash seems to make any difference.

mike

BoostBuggy

yo this is kyle(mooreboost). i did some searching on the forums and it all seems to lead to bad grounds. i pulled every ground off and cleaned it. about to start it up and will let you know the results.

BoostBuggy

Kyle re-did the grounds. No change....

BoostBuggy

how often does the temp gauge sensor go bad?

dillon410021

it could be this, but I have also had problems with the temp gauge on my other 944S and it happened to be the gauge itself. the gauge would bounce, go up to the red mark. If you hit the plastic near the gauge, it would go to the normal spot.

MooreBoost

i also had to replace a temp gauge in a 968. i have never seen a temp gauge sensor fail in the 9 years of owning these cars

BoostBuggy

(This is Michael on Sunday) After checking and re-checking i.e. unscrewing and rescrew/tightening various ground points the behavior remains. It seems odd (to me at least) that prior to doing the clutch job (and this is NOT meant as some level of commentary on the job MooreBoost did) all the gauges et al worked just fine and without a single issue. I understand that messing with the speed/ref sensors could easily have upset them but nothing else was touched (I'm told)

Additionally what seems "off" is the car will start after having the CTEK charger on it for a while. Well maybe I have to wiggle the speed/ref sensors, but it will start. After I've driven around for 30+ minutes without a single issue (other than the guages readding oddly) then when I shut the car off and attempt to restart it acts like a dead battery or bad battery connection i.e. it will click once and that's it. I put the battery charge back on for a while and then it starts fine albeit turns over a little slow (again like a weak battery)

I know the first response to this is the battery is probably not getting a good charge as I drive.... That could be. But the car doesn't behave like it's running more on battery than on self generated power. I can run the radio, the A/C, etc and nothing changes like it would when you have a bad battery/bad charging/etc.

I'll see if I can find a place to check the charging before I head out. but this is as long as I can wait to get going. Gotta start my trip to California today (now.) Next stop....Salt Lake City. Any RL'ers around there that would be interested in meeting later tonight? Let me know.....

As always, all suggestions are encouraged and appreciated. I'll still be getting emails et al while I'm on the road.

MooreBoost

micheal..... the speed and ref sensors have nothing to do with the temp/volt gauge. the only gauge they effect is the tach. i took the ground off the bell housing and cleaned it. when you installed your driving lights, did you mess with any grounds? when i was checking grounds i found the grounds near the headlights to be a little loose. tightened them and still same problem. i really dont think you have a ground issue. if you had more time i know we could fix this issue.

MooreBoost

do you know how old these sensors are? when the last time they have been touched? almost every nut and bolt i had to touch was rusted or stripped prior to me putting a wrench on them. who was the previous mehcanic to work on this car? i noticed you had to push the clutch in really hard in order to get the car to start. maybe its the clutch switch/cruise control? i suggest you buy a new battery and see if all your problems go away. you might even have a big draw from those 100 watt lights you installed.

River

Also do/check:

pull out cluster...clean all electrical contacts
grounds
clean relay connections and points
coolant temp sensor itself, and the wiring.

If you just did clutch work, you may have disturbed something on the starter. Those big wires that go from the starter to the battery (and alternator) are huge and old. Make sure things are tight, clean and shiny and with dilectric grease.

Try to do one thing at a time and test, so you know what it was. Some times I did a bunch of stuff at one time, so now I'm not sure what the problem was (like bouncing gauge, misreading gauge,etc). Now that I'm over the hump/curve...things work just about perfect. For me, I replaced all the usual suspects in the car that can cause the car issues (no start, spark, fuel, the list goes on)

MooreBoost

turns out it was a ground. double check every ground

BoostBuggy

In all of this, I can't say enough good things about Kyle (MooreBoost) and his dedication/diligence in getting this resolved. He worked tirelessly to to get me on the road. Thx again to MooreBoost!!

turbochad

I have edited this post to protect the innocent.

Rennlist Community,
I would not do buisiness with Michael Wachholtz.
Regards,
Chad ***

MooreBoost

thanks for all the kind words michael.

i think michael is a nice guy. got to hang out with him, work on his car and can tell you it was nice doing business with him.