Hey Mark, I had a recent run in with the temp. sending unit for the gauge. It is the one on the battery side of the head, closer to the firewall right? I did not do a engine wash, but after I did an engine swap, I must have over tightened the sensor, not enough to break(until later!), but enough to allow the brass can between threads to begin to spread and crack...for some reason you have a crack in the sensor, and water got in there during the engine wash, I am sure the sensor needs replaced. Just a warning, if you replace the sensor DO NOT OVER TIGHTEN! I actually went through three sensors before I got one in and not over tightened. I just finger tightened the last one with some Teflon tape and don't see any leaks. I purchased the sensor at a local supplier for $9.50. I know Adirondack and Motorworks handles them as well. HTH, Greg
-----Original Message----- From: Mark Gabel [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 2001 1:49 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Coolant temp gauge going nutts after engine degreasing - 89gti After I degreased my engine and drove it for a few days everything was back to normal, except for the coolant temp guage. This little thing has been going nutts. The temp guage will go from being normal to reading maximum temperature and bonuce in between all the time. A friend suggested that the sensor may being grounded intermittently and that is causing the max reading. Also, the temp warning light (on the guage itself) just keeps blinking a lot of the time, no matter what the needle position (the needle can be in one of its function-properly phases and the light will still blink). Could I have actually damaged the sending unit? Tomorrow I'll probably do the quick check in the bentley and If that checks out I'll tighten everything and put some deoxit on the connectors. Any other ideas?
