Im looking at finally installing my aftermarket temp gauge. Instead of getting a temp sensor adaptor for the rad hose i was wondering if it were possible to cut the wires to the OEM temp sensor and rewiring it to the AM gauge. Is this a good idea?? Anyone tried it before?
Do take note that the climate control system uses the Oem temp sensor. When mine broke off this stopped me from having heater.
Then he wont have an OEM temp gauge at all. You could drill and tap another spot for the new sensor bung in the top radiator hard pipe if you wanted.
No but considering original plan was to cut the wires I didn't think he was fussed on retaining the OEM gauge. Gauge is expendable if replaced with A/M, ECU temp sensor isn't. Personally I think a dead gauge looks a bit half arsed so I have a bung welded to the pipe which has been drilled and tapped for the A/M sensor.
Ok but how about instead of cutting the OEM sensor completely couldnt i just tap into the wires and use the OEM sensor to run both gauges. Would this work??
Hmm depends what voltage your gauge runs off and what voltage the OEM sensor supplies... To be honest I've not looked into it. Most aftermarket gauges come with their own sensor and harness.
My bad, when I read it I thought he meant splice into the wiring, not just cut it... Robs on the money, if both the stock guage and your aftermarket one run off the same voltage (not 12v, actual sensor voltage), then I don't see there being an issue.
So just to clarify. As long as both gauges run off the same voltage, it should be ok to run both gauges off the one OEM sensor
All gauges are calibrated to specific sensors. An OEM gauge has a specific sensor for the gauge in the dash. You woud have to check the OEM calibration and the A/M calibration to check if they match before using the OEM sensor with an A/M gauge. All OEM sensors and gauges are the same but not all brands of A/M gauge and sensors are the same. Another way to check is to remove your OEM sensor and wire it to your A/M gauge and place the sensor in some water with a thermometer and check the gauge against the thermometer. You could be lucky. In my opinion you would be better off installing the A/M gauge and matching sensor. michaelZ
Any more info on this? As far as I could work out, the sensor was only used for the temp gauge, everything else is run off the ECU temp sensor....
I thought the same when the terminal broke of the temp sensor. All of a sudden, I had no heater during winter. I then found this information. As you can see it mentions a thermal transmitter (water temp) It's shown here in the wiring diagram When followed back, it goes to the auto amp for the climate control system Now notice the thermal transmitter is labelled F31 In the location diagram it shows this As we can see, it's pointing to the temp sensor the stock gauge uses. I assume the auto amp uses this sensor to know when the coolant is hot enough to turn on the heater tap to allow hot water to circulate through.
Thats awesome thanks!!!!! I removed mine, as I fitted an aftermarket guage in the dash cluster (since removed and now only using ECU talk) At the moment I have nothing in there, and have noticed the heater performance can be a bit up and down - thought maybe it was an issue I caused after refitting the dash after swapping the heater core - but this might just be the issue!