Temperature sender for 350i with VDO Gauges

[Ian B]

Here’s a toughie! What vehicle does the temperature sender come from on a 1985 350i. The Rover SD1 apparently had Smiths gauges so a sender from one would not match my VDO gauge.
Various senders I’ve tried as a ‘lucky dip’ read too high or too low, so can anyone point me in the right direction?

Thanks a lot for any info.

[gsx600]

Ian

There is another thread going on in general tvr which might help you to calibrate your existing one using a resistor

www.petrolheads.co.uk/gassing/topic.asp?t=123197&f=13&h=0

That way you could use the original guage with a different sender.

I would use a varible resister, get the car to a normal operating temparture and then set the resistor so that the guage is reading normal. Then let the car cool down and make sure the temp guage goes down as well.

This will at least give you an indication of when getting hotter and colder on the guage

now if we could only sort out the fuel guages to read accuratly !!

[350matt]

Merlin motorsport stock a sender which doesn't need any resistors and is lot faster to react than the rover one about 20 quid tho'

Matt

[adam quantrill]

I took off the resistor from my 350i that was in series with the sender.

So now the guage reads too high.

Does anyone know the typical value that TVR stuck in there? VDO guages.

Cheers,

- Adam

[jchase]

Hi Adam,

My resistor by the sender reads 15 Ohms. The car has a VDO gauge, which seem to be telling the truth around 90 Celcius at operation point.

-Jim