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water temp light just came on ?!?!

December 20, 2013, 07:27:24 pm

We are 140 miles into our travel driving through freezing rain, cold temps, snow etc.
All of my gages have been consistant & in good range. Ive only been driving about 55 mph and out of nowhere my "water temp" dash light came on....very faint. The temp gage has been reading 185 ish with no fluxuation. As I pulled off an exit and have been stopped with engine running the light faded slowly until out ( but was never bright like park brake light ) and the actual temp gage has stayed put at 180-185.

Should I be worried or no?
Checked and filled all that was off before leaving.

Suggestions please.

Thanks

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Re: water temp light just came on ?!?!

Reply #1 – December 20, 2013, 07:58:55 pm

You could have – ground busbar shorting out or a lose connection.

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Reply #2 – December 20, 2013, 09:22:41 pm

Sounds like a sending unit that that has moisture on it that is completing the ground to make the light glow. If the temp guage is ok would think that it is not overheating.

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Reply #3 – December 20, 2013, 09:25:42 pm

Usually, a faint glowing light is an indication of a faulty ground as Peter posted. Another accessory may not be getting it's normal ground and going through the temp light. Would check sender also.

Pierce

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Re: water temp light just came on ?!?!

Reply #4 – December 20, 2013, 09:49:38 pm

This is where a thermal IR gun would be handy to verify if the actual engine temperature matches the gauge.

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Reply #5 – December 22, 2013, 10:40:05 am

I've had the same symptoms with the low fuel light.

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Reply #6 – December 22, 2013, 11:11:12 am

Quite likely the water caused a partial ground or short between terminals causing the false alarm.

Clean connections and use silicone di-electric grease to protect them. Pay particular attention to the senders on the engine.

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Reply #7 – December 22, 2013, 06:23:12 pm

A good cleaner is the electrical/electronic cleaner that comes in a spray can.  Easy to use and is very effective.  have a great day  ----  Fritz

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Reply #8 – December 23, 2013, 09:48:26 am

As I recall many of the gauges behind the dash have ground wires that connect to several gauges. As suggested, if there is a disrupted ground in one of the other systems it could affect the temp gauge. Also, if your DC voltage drops the light might come on. I know from experience that low voltage can affect the water temp gauge reading. Low voltage makes the gauge show a higher temperature.

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Reply #9 – December 23, 2013, 06:56:32 pm

John Fitz had a good suggestion.
Thermal IR devices are cheap and good for many things.  In this case, it could be used to quickly determine if the engine was really hot...or not.

On our boat, we used it often for determining and checking on some occasion against a 'base' number we took earlier, things like pulley temperatures on alternator, water pump, head temps, trans temps, exhaust temps and many times, temperatures of refrigeration components.  Many, many things can be monitored with a very simple digital Infared hand held device.. I got mine years ago at Radio Shack.

I now use if for a quick "Walk -Around" gauge to check Tire Temperatures on my vehicles.........Just a 'click' can give be a quick alert if necessary.

attached photos.

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Reply #10 – December 25, 2013, 11:16:04 pm

Thanks again guys, actually I have one of the IR units but dont remember to use the silly thing.
I know they are very handy and I have to get better about using it.

Also I suspect that I have a possible ground issue only because there was something a miss with my rpm gage not long ago and when bumping a wire (ground) by accident it started working.
However I am also skidish about my charging system and thought to myself that there could have been a drop in volts. Id REALLY like to get that figured out one of those days.

I'll have to look into grounds and volts again when at home base and its warmer than -20. The weird thing was that there were times I would flip from "boost" to not on boost and it appeared that the new alternator was working. Then every time we park someplace....I've got to pray over the darn thing and hope it starts. That never is a good feeling. 

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Reply #11 – December 26, 2013, 10:32:02 am

You have mentioned a number of voltage related problems, those started to show up on my 93.  We would loose the tack, or dash AC fan, or jacks, on or off when ever, driving or parked.  A new ignition solenoid solved my problems.

Hope you are just looking at loose ground wires as suggested above.

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Reply #12 – December 26, 2013, 11:46:19 am

As of now I have not started chasing them but have checked for loose wires on different parts when ive been in a certain area doing maintenence.  I am totally lost when it comes to location of & how to test solenoids.  I dont know one from another or what they should read ....or when. I would like to be more savvy in this area.

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