Temperature gauge or sender playing up?

[dbv8]

I drove my car 220 miles to Shakey setting of at 6am on Saturday.
Upto halfway the temp stayed just above 80 on the gauge.
Then it slowly started to rise to 95-100 on the motorway.
As i came off the M40 the temp climbed further showing over 110 so i pulled over and let it cool until i could remove the cap and take a look for any leaks etc.
I removed the swirl tank plug to find only a little air so topped it up and finished the journey. It was reading about 120 as i entered the pits without the fans kicking in.

After the weekend i headed another 97 miles to my Sisters and only heard the fans kick in once when the gauge showed 120 again.
The fans used to hardly ever have to kick in and when they did it was on a rare occasion when the temp went north of 90.

So do i have a dodgy gauge or sender or should i be worried its a sign of worse.

[Alexdaredevilz]

I use the range rover sender that's already installed ( as do a few here) I can send you a resistor in the post and you can see how much more accurate it is,

Reason people change the sender is because the Tvr sender is in dead water and fills up with crap, and only measure's the temp of the manifold and not the water

[dbv8]

Resistor?

[Alexdaredevilz]

It goes in-line when you change senders over

[dbv8]

Oh ok.
I will get the car home on Thursday (only 271 miles from my sisters).
Then swap the sender etc this weekend and see if its that first.

[anonymous-user]

Same happened to mine recently, checked and cleaned all connections but fans only came on intermittently above 95,, changed otter switch, mine is top left of rad, and all readings back to normal and fans kicking in and out correctly, was about £ 15 i think.

[Goaty Bill]

Very common fault apparently, mine has a similar though very different variation on the theme, yet it isn't actually overheating, and the fans are coming in correctly.

Also it seems that two different sending units can give quite different readings, though why that should be a 'TVRs do that' kind of thing is still a mystery to me.

Would be interested in your results with the Alex fix. I had heard of that somewhere before.

[sgrimshaw]

You thought about the Modwise two stage fan kit?

Great for peace of mind.

[dbv8]

sgrimshaw said:

You thought about the Modwise two stage fan kit?

Great for peace of mind.

Would you believe i have one at home on the shelf!
Its been collecting dust for over 2 years.... time to fit i think.

[Harrytsg]

I fitted the modwise kit prior to the summer this year, I think its only gone on to high (full) speed once or twice when stuck in traffic for overly long periods, my car is a daily driver.

Worth fitting.