Has anyone fitted an oil temp gauge?

23rd March 2009, 19:55

As per title...

I'm not 100% convinced that my standard one reads correctly. Due to having an S1 box, the oil temp runs high on long haul driving; needle sits a little above half way sitting at 70mph... At high speed, the needle gets to 3/4's and never seems to go any higher. When I was at Brands last week, it did the same, it got to 3/4's rather fast, but then just stayed there, until I slowed down of course. I'm concerned that it might not be reading correctly, so I'd like to fit a proper temp gauge for peace of mind. Has anyone done this before?

Many thanks in advance!

24th March 2009, 00:48

i had one fitted in my ax mounted in dash.

was a shit gauge. but didnt have std gauge wired in.
is easy to do though.

but my opinion i would go for oil pressure gauge.

24th March 2009, 10:22

im fitting both temp and pressure to mine. got a sandwhich plate and senders for the gauges. just need to find out what size adaptor i need to fit the oil filter on.

24th March 2009, 10:33

Bit of a hijack but can you fit a thermostatic plate with cooler and tap into the lines to get a pressure & temp gauge fitted?.

EDIT:

Answered my own Q, its the plate that needs the fittings;

http://www.speedflowshop.co.uk/unive...c50-1384-p.asp

24th March 2009, 11:28

You can get a oil pressure / oil temp gauge on tweeks iirc, worth going for that imo as its only 1 dial (half the dial each) and leaves space for a proper water temp sensor and 1 other gauge as well

24th March 2009, 13:06

Ah yes. Oil pressure gauge is very important... I'm curious as to how you actually go about fitting them though. Any ideas?

24th March 2009, 18:21

Toad, one way to do it is to get a Sandwich plate with the sender adapters built in (for electrical gauges);

http://www.speedflowshop.co.uk/unive...c50-1384-p.asp

Then you can either blank off the BSP fittings for the oil cooler, or fit an oil cooler - why not, then just wire up the senders to your gauges and wa la. Or if you have Mechanical gauges you have to plumb them into the sandwich plate but i dont know much about the mech ones.

90% of gauges come with the senders so you'd just need to check the sender thread size, but demon tweaks have all the adapters so you'll never be stuck. Also you need to make sure the senders sit far enough in, if you use an adapter otherwise you'll get dodgy readings.

The downside to that sandwich plate is that it hasn't got a thermostat so you'd need an inline one, if you fit a cooler. And i think they go for about £50.

24th March 2009, 18:36

This all seems really complicated!

I don't want to fit an oil cooler unless the oil is too hot. And I won't know that until I fit an oil temp gauge, lol!

24th March 2009, 18:44

In that case, you could wire up the gauge to the existing oil sender from the GTI/S engine. Im not sure where it is but someone will lol. But for the pressure as far as i know you need to tap into an oil line and the easiest way is to do it from the sandwich plate.

The sender is just an electronic bit of magic that has + / -, the gauge does the rest;

Thats quite a small sender, some of the gauges come with big ones that are easier to wire up but not too good to look at.

24th March 2009, 18:47

if i were you id fit the oil pressure sender into the head and sort that first. im pretty sure ther is a plug in the engine block you can use to take off for the temperature one. ten you dont have to faff around with a cooler if you dont need one.

24th March 2009, 18:49

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. If there's already a working sensor, surely I can manipulate a different / more accurate display for it...

24th March 2009, 18:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by dannygti

if i were you id fit the oil pressure sender into the head and sort that first. im pretty sure ther is a plug in the engine block you can use to take off for the temperature one. ten you dont have to faff around with a cooler if you dont need one.

Yup, there must be a fairly easy way...

24th March 2009, 18:50

you have to be careful with certain senders as they dont always work with other clocks (normally fuel sender) but most oil and temp are pretty generic.

24th March 2009, 18:51

That's good news!

24th March 2009, 18:59

I think the sender is above the gearbox on the right hand side of the engine with a blue clip. Havn't got the haynes handy so can't confirm.

24th March 2009, 19:02

And you reckon there's gauges out there that will plug straight in to that sender?

24th March 2009, 19:04

It might give dodgy readings but if your buying a gauge it will come with a sender to suit it. So you can just swap them over. If the thread sizes are different demon tweeks will hook you up.

Heres a diagram to help explain mate;
http://www.custominstrumentpanels.co...ge_install.jpg

If you havn't got a haynes let me know and ill find out where the oem sender is.

24th March 2009, 19:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ste

I think the sender is above the gearbox on the right hand side of the engine with a blue clip. Havn't got the haynes handy so can't confirm.

im pretty sure there's plugs on either side of that face of the engine you coul use. im not 100% though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toad

And you reckon there's gauges out there that will plug straight in to that sender?

it wont b plug and play but you can use the same wires.

24th March 2009, 19:07

I only do plug and play...

24th March 2009, 19:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toad

I only do plug and play...

in that case you will need to buy the appropriate sensors preferrably form the same company to get the right connectors.

im getting some stack dials as they are the fcking bizz.

24th March 2009, 19:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toad

I only do plug and play...

Plug and Pray lol.

16th January 2011, 00:58

after reading this thread im still confused at how to fit 2-3 gauge's to my sax...

im after a water temp,oil temp and battery volt(im ok with the volt 1)but not sure on the others

"help"