'81 Oil Temp Sensor
Thread Starter
Melting Slicks
Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 3,323
Likes: 142
From: Green Valley Arizona
'81 Oil Temp Sensor
Anyone have experience with the sender failing? I thought the senders were pretty much good for life.
Seems the one on my '81 has taken a dump...in that the resistance no longer goes down as oil temp goes up. After running the engine for almost 30 minutes I noticed I still had no oil temp. Since I am still putting the car back together and had the gauges sitting loose I was able to pull the three contact connector off and check it. Voltage good, ground good...sensor was reading over 3000 ohms to ground....well that's no good. Measured resistance at the oil temp sensor itself and it was over 3000 ohms....hence why the oil temp gauge was not showing a temp.
I have checked the gauge using resistors and it is good.
Guess I am just complaining....$60 for the sender!!
Seems the one on my '81 has taken a dump...in that the resistance no longer goes down as oil temp goes up. After running the engine for almost 30 minutes I noticed I still had no oil temp. Since I am still putting the car back together and had the gauges sitting loose I was able to pull the three contact connector off and check it. Voltage good, ground good...sensor was reading over 3000 ohms to ground....well that's no good. Measured resistance at the oil temp sensor itself and it was over 3000 ohms....hence why the oil temp gauge was not showing a temp.
I have checked the gauge using resistors and it is good.
Guess I am just complaining....$60 for the sender!!
Racer
Joined: Aug 2010
Posts: 337
Likes: 6
St. Jude Donor '16
I get no temp indication in cold weather( 20 to 50 degrees ) unless i drive for at least an hour...In summer weather it takes about 20 to 30 minutes to get an oil temp reading ( my car is an '81 )...when fully warmed up in summer driving oil temp is 175 and coolant temp is 195...Good Luck
Thread Starter
Melting Slicks
Joined: Nov 2005
Posts: 3,323
Likes: 142
From: Green Valley Arizona
Update to this thread:
I removed the temp sensor, measured resistance when cold....was very high...like 18k ohms.
Stuck temp sensor end into some very warm water while watching resistance; went from 18k to around 7k ohms....still waaay to high compared to the numbers from Willcox which were under 100 ohms for various temp readings.
Just wondering if anyone else has ever measured the resistance of the temp sensor? I ordered a replacement and will see what it shows.
I removed the temp sensor, measured resistance when cold....was very high...like 18k ohms.
Stuck temp sensor end into some very warm water while watching resistance; went from 18k to around 7k ohms....still waaay to high compared to the numbers from Willcox which were under 100 ohms for various temp readings.
Just wondering if anyone else has ever measured the resistance of the temp sensor? I ordered a replacement and will see what it shows.
