Raplacing the Temp Gauge Sender (Page 1/1)
Zentaury JUL 20, 01:23 PM
Hello everyone!

Is my first time replacing the Temp Gauge Sender. Doing my search here in my forum I thought I was prepared to do this job and not worry anymore about driving "blind" about overheating the engine.

As usual, you think you have a 15 min job and becomes a 3 hours task :P with a lot of questions.

The new one is BWD WT414. It does not get all the way into the head, just half of the thread of the sensor. Is that normal? (I see on the old one some stuff around the top half of the thread). And was very hard for me to find the thread from the head to match the sensor and screw it.



1) I grounded the wires, one pegs the gauge , the other does nothing , I don't get the temp light, even when starting the car (I need to replace the lightbulb).
Is the lightbulb 194 like the rest of the dash? I used search but didn't find an answer specifically for that lightbulb. Another thing to do meanwhile I replace the lightbulb will be to switch the wires to fix the pegging issue.

2) After replacing the sender/sensor, still I don't get the gauge to move. Is there a way to test the new sender?

3) The car might be low on the coolant. When I removed the old sensor, did not spill coolant at all. Car has been sitting for 15 days. Is the coolant what "grounds" the sensor and that's why I don't get a "reading" on the gauge?


4) Is this the right coolant to use it in the Fiero? Not going deep into the "best" for summer or winter, just to know if it won't damage anything.


Thanks everyone for your comments!
theogre JUL 20, 02:38 PM
Gauge/light and rad fan senders ground to engine by the threads.
Teflon tape can have problems for them.
Use non-drying Teflon paint sealer or other pipe sealer.

Do not over torque or can break the aluminum. Very easy because most sealers acts as lube even when they dry later.
These threads go tight in ~ the middle 1/3 of treads. you should never get all threads in a hole unless you have problems.

Stores sells 50/50 mix and is good for topping up a system but you pay most of same price to get water. If you don't need much then can be good.

------------------
Dr. Ian Malcolm: Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.
(Jurassic Park)

The Ogre's Fiero Cave