bluenose2007

Hi,
My classic has an aftermarket water temp guage but i can't decide whether to pay any attention to it.

After a few minutes of driving the standard guage has pretty much reached its settling point whilst the after market one is reading about 30-50 deegrees. It will settle at about 85-90 eventually with no noticeable difference on the standard guage. At which of these points do you put your foot down a bit.

If I hammer it for a length of time on the motorway I get the aftermarket one over 100. The standard one will be up a bit but no where near saying it is getting hot.

Which guage do i believe, i'm thinking about just whipping all of the aftermarket guages out, if the car is pretty standard what is the point in them? Subaru didn't think they were necessary or they'd have been standard right?

500

Are you sure it's water temp and not oil?

The standard water one is fairly inaccurate anyway.

I would wait to give it some after 10-15mins after the water is warm as it's the oil that you want up to temp anyway!

Jay m A

iTrader: (2)

If you are referring to the OE gauge in the dash then it is the most useless thing. basically it has 3 readings

Cold - needle hasn't moved. Yes, we know its cold, I've just started the bloody car up.

Slightly warm to very hot - needle in middle, may move 1mm from centre depending if is 50C or 95C

Boiling over and gaskets probably gone - needle moves away from centre a bit more.

Whats annoying is that the ECU knows the exact water temp via another sensor, so why Subaru didn't link this to the dash is beyond me..

John 37

There's a 30degC dead band in the middle of the range on the OE gauge. The needle stays in the middle from 70C to 100C by design. Stupid design but that's how it works.

John