new member 318ti temp gauge

[decsnz 0]

Hi there,

I am new to this forum and BMWs. I just got myself a 95 318ti. I have noticed that the temp gauge moves around a bit from 1/4 to 1/2 way. depending on how fast I am going. It goes down when I go faster and back to half way when going up a hill or stopped. What would cause this? The car has only done 52000ks and the engine was checked before I purchased it.

Cheers

[alex 0]

Hey man welcome!

I'm no pro, but it just sounds like a faulty gauge, but dont take my word for it.

[Katalyst 0]

Have you checked radiator coolant levels??

will drop when ur going fast cause ur ramming cool air through the engine bay

test it by running ur car and let it heat up, watch it, listen to it, too see if ur fan kicks in and cools things down

hope tht it helps

[*Glenn* 855]

Your thermostat is faulty

[decsnz 0]

Your thermostat is faulty

Thanks botanymotorworx. I have replaced the thermostat and it has fixed the issue.

I am interested though as normally when the thermostat goes it only affects how long the vehicle takes to warm up and does not affect the running temp once the vehicle is warm. Cheers

[OLLIE 26]

Thanks botanymotorworx. I have replaced the thermostat and it has fixed the issue.

I am interested though as normally when the thermostat goes it only affects how long the vehicle takes to warm up and does not affect the running temp once the vehicle is warm. Cheers

the thermostat is still the piece of equipment that reads the temperature and tells the gauge what to show, so if the thermostat is faulty (gives intermittent readings) then the gauge is going to flicker and do funny things.

[Mike 1]

the thermostat is still the piece of equipment that reads the temperature and tells the gauge what to show, so if the thermostat is faulty (gives intermittent readings) then the gauge is going to flicker and do funny things.

quiet noob

the thermostat controls the flow of water to the radiator.

your thermostat obviously wasn't closing like it should have, so the engine was being cooled too much at higher speeds

[Andrew 30]

quiet noob

the thermostat controls the flow of water to the radiator.

your thermostat obviously wasn't closing like it should have, so the engine was being cooled too much at higher speeds

And to add to ollie's n00bness hah - the flicking of the temp gauge is usually caused by problems with the SI board.

[*Glenn* 855]

The thermostat controls engine running temperature by altering flow

The temperature sender unit ( different part ) signals the temperature guage in the dash and DME

They are both different components

[OLLIE 26]

pwned.

such old technology - 2 seperate parts to do basically the same thing (measure temperature), if the thermostat measures the temperature to control the flow of water to the radiator why can't it also tell the temperature gauge in the dash what to show thus reducing the number of individual parts/weak points on an engine?

[Mike 1]

the thermostat isn't an electrical device, its a mechanical valve which operates based on the temp of water flowing through it.

A temp sender is basically a temperature dependent resistor, its resistance changes based on temp, the uce and gauge simply read this resistance.

have any luck with my forum prob btw?

Edited June 14, 2007 by Mike

[OLLIE 26]

have any luck with my forum prob btw?

instructions here

[Mike 1]

ah wicked, cheers. mine went bung using search function too