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BMW 324td

Hi,

I have a BMW 324td (E30), largely similar to 325 I believe, and recently on long journeys the temp guage is behaving strangely. For a while it seems fine, hovering arouind the middle. Then can rise up to 3/4 but then coming back down. On occasion or if in traffic the needle seems to dance around somewhat randomly but largely going up until it reaches the red. There is no emulsion on the filler cap and the water level doesn't seem to change. I've stopped a couple of times but have never seen it actually steaming. I find this a little disconcerting as I don't know if the car is actually overheating or if its a faulty temperature reader, when I've felt the pipes they are hot though.

Reply to
nat_neil
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On Tue, 07 Nov 2006 18:08:17 GMT, "nat_neil" waffled on about something:

You need to work out if the sender is being truthful... If it's twitching, it sounds a bit odd. Unfortunately a normally happy working temperature for a car engine is also what you'd call hot.

Ignoring the fact that the sender sounds a bit iffy, when you say the temperature get's to 3/4 then goes down, does it go down very suddenly? If so, change your thermostat, your current one is sticking.

Dodgy.

Reply to
Dodgy

Reply to
nat_neil

If it overheats in traffic I'd suspect the viscous fan coupling.

Reply to
John Burns

1 - sending unit - change it to be sure 2 - possible shorted wire 3 - possible bad thermostat - change it to be sure 4 - possible air in the system. this can be cause by a bad radiator cap. change it to be sure.

All the above are low-skill tasks to replace low-cost parts. It won't hurt you to buy the parts and change them all out. Replace the coolant too, if you have never done so.

Reply to
Rex B

This sounds like a gauge problem to me. The temperature gauge in my 318i acted like this when the gauge was failing. The next time it acts up, just try giving the instrument cluster a sharp rap with your knuckle to see if it has any effect. When my gauge was going out sometimes this would cause it go back to normal and sometimes it would jump all the way into the red, the important thing being that tapping on the instrument panel would cause the temperature gauge to change quickly.

Reply to
Jack

Hi.

Had the same problem with my E30 325i,very simple to fix.Remove instrument cluster,removed the cable from the temp gauge,clean off and refit. Fault is caused by a bad contact,cleaning and roughing up the contact usually helps. I had this done by an independent specialist,who after i told that I thought the fan,sender etc was faulty just asid NO dirty contact and only charged me a few pounds to repair.

Mark

Good luck.

Reply to
spectrum

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