The full story:
May 2002 - given car with faulty temperature gauge. New sender unit required, so popped down to Ford to get one. "Green, white or red sir?". "Black please" I said. Settled on his best judgement of green. Seemed to work OK and been happy with it ever since.
November 2007 - car has, for a while (maybe years?) been slow at heating up, so I purchased a new thermostat, 92 degrees, from Ford.
Now it runs about 3/4 up either on or just about the 'N' of 'NORM'. Now I can't decide if it's
been running cold with a dodgy stat since replacing the sender with the wrong colour 5 years agobeen running with the right sender which has deteriorated at the same rate as the stat over 5 yearsgot the right sender running fine with a dodgy thermostat.
Anyone care to guess which? Ford bloke this morning says try the red sender which keeps the guage in the middle more - but what was this black sender which was fitted to it in the first place? Another case of Ford fitting parts OEM which they can't find at the parts desk! Senders are £15 each.
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Mike Farrow
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Mike
Slight confusion there; if it's running on the N of NORM, what's the 3/4 bit? Did you mean the "M?"
If the needle moves steadily up to just above it's normal running position then drops back to it; remaining there all the time the vehicle is moving, then it sound good to me,
Only if it uses water, or if the gauge is unstable after settling [with the car moving] would I give it a second thought.
[The sensors don't normally age - and you haven't even tried the pink or yellow ones yet....]
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If everything works fine (ie the car is running okay) then I wouldn't worry about it.
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Slight confusion there; if it's running on the N of NORM what's the 3/4 bit? Did you mean the "M?"
Just on the top of N, I've tried to demonstrat what it reads below.
1 [Red]
3/4
N
O
R
M
1/4
0 [White]
If the needle moves steadily up to just above it's normal running position then drops back to it; remaining there all the time the vehicle is moving then it sound good to me
It just goes up to the position stated within about two miles.
Only if it uses water or if the gauge is unstable after settling [with the car moving] would I give it a second thought.
None of those symptons.
[The sensors don't normally age - and you haven't even tried the pink or yellow ones yet....]
That's what I thought, I think Ford man was clutching at straws.
Looks like everything's normal then (sort of). Thanks for your help. I might add a series resistor for psychological effect.
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Mike Farrow
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Mike
Ahh; that explains it. A vertical, right-handed gauge [there were so many types.]
What was the opening temp of the old stat? It should be stamped on either the flange or the bottom of the wax pellet.
Does your temp sensor have a blade terminal or an M5 thread? What was it's Ford part number? My old Lucas sensor catalogue has an HCS one crossed as finis 6136366 or 1640040; part code 84-AB-10884-BA.
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Ahh; that explains it. A vertical right-handed gauge [there were so many types.]
Yes, should have explained that first!
What was the opening temp of the old stat? It should be stamped on either the flange or the bottom of the wax pellet.
92 degrees (about 75 in reality when I tested it!). This agrees with Ford (who I bought it from) but contradicts Halfords, factors etc. who say it should be 88 degrees. This is another reason why I'm confused!
Does your temp sensor have a blade terminal or an M5 thread? What was it's Ford part number?
M5 thread. I couldn't tell you about the part numbers I'm afraid. The green "recommended" one has an 89- prefix.
The red one (different characteristics, with a wider temperature range in the NORM part) was labelled Valencia/HCS so I assume would have an older prefix, though the Valencia I believe ran cooler.
I don't know about the white one (called colourless) - Ford man hadn't seen an HCS with one (but then he hadn't seen a black one either!). BTW the black one that came off the car in 2002 was original Ford but that was its only marking.
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Mike Farrow
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Mike
92 sounds right; Ford have used that in all versions of the 1.3 since '74.
Lucas list the threaded sensor in 43, 45, 48.75 and 50 Ohm @ 100C versions. The HCS one is the 48.75 Ohm which is different to a non-HCS Valencia [45 Ohm] on the same year? I'd guess that you've got the 45 Ohm one in there.
What you'll have to do is to take a kettle and an Ohmmeter down to your local Ford dealers; boil it up on the counter, suspend them in the water and measure all the different colours to match them with their Ohmic values.
[This does have a slight risk of making you unpopular with the parts queue.....]
Edited by Screwloose on 24/11/2007 at 17:26
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senders at £15 a pop.wow
i bet ive loads of these in a cupboard somewhere from the nineties.
I also remember they were £3.50 plus the dreaded from partco,i only remember two colours though :-(
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Ford std. stats are 88c.. 92c. were used in cold climate countries to give a little more heater output.In the UK either can be fitted.Don't worry about the position of the needle in the gauge unless it goes into the red.The scale is not linear.
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I have the oposite problem to the OP. My Focus TDCI115 takes about 6 miles to warm up. Can anyone tell me please what temp thermostat is on these cars and whether I could change it to a hotter one, so that it might warm up a bit quicker?
My wife would be so happy if the car was warmer, I could get her the new thermostat for Christmas!
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quizman
If the stat is shut, it's shut. It's opening temperature won't make any difference to the speed of warm-up.
You should have immersion heaters in the heater hoses to aid internal warmth as common-rail diesels shed very little surplus heat.
Making sure that these "thermoplunger plugs" are working [many aren't] is your best move.
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Thanks Screwloose, by the way what is a "thermoplunger plug"? And how can you tell if one is working?
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It's one of those immersion heaters. You should have three, controlled as a single and a pair by two relays.
You can measure it's resistance - won't be a lot; 1-2 ohms, but if they fail, they're open-circuit.
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Lucas list the threaded sensor in 43 45 48.75 and 50 Ohm @ 100C versions. The HCS one is the 48.75 Ohm
I got about 50 ohms when measured just now. Can't go too accurately as I'm using a fan oven, my best multimeter for the thermometer, and a "Heathkit" analogue one (calibrated using resistors) as I can't find my other digital. I think there's a 15% tolerance overall.
BTW if anyone else is reading this the sensors are 1/2" AF, not 13mm which was rounding off the head. The only imperial hexagon on a metric car.
I think I'll leave it there as I'm happy the car is running OK and I'm getting good heat out the vents. If you see a thread in the summer entitled "HCS engine melted itself!" you know it's not the end of the story :-)
Finally Screwloose, the 84-AB-10884-BA quoted in your Lucas catalogue is the red one.
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Mike Farrow
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Mike
Thanks for the update and the info; if it's staying fairly stable, then I shouldn't worry.
With all the sender compatibility issues, what the gauge is doing, rather than exactly where it's sitting, is probably more important.
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