Water temperature

[RIC172]

hi all, I drive about 14 miles to work every day and it’s a mixture of town and faster roads. My water temperature reading on the dashboard doesn’t seem right though as it will barely move off the bottom until I drive about 10 miles or more.

Eventually the gauge will read about a third warm but never goes to halfway even on a long journey. The temperature gauge drops even lower than a third sometimes too.

How does this compare with other people’s 172/182s as this doesn’t seem right?

 

[R3k1355]

Should sit at 3/4's to halfway when it's warm, can't remember exactly.

Sender or gauge could be broken, or the thermostat could be stuck open.

 

[MRBILLYUK]

Mine always sits bang on halfway , always has done since new . Usually takes 5-10 mins or so to get up to that.

 

[Amos91]

Should rise until it sits in the middle and stays there. Sounds like the thermostat is stuck open.

 

[RIC172]

Ok cheers guys. Mine definitely isn’t right then. After 10 mins of driving in mine the gauge would still be on the bottom! In fact it doesn’t moves up to a third even after 30 mins of driving

I will replace the thermostat and coolant temp sensor and hope that fixes it!

 

[davo172]

Change stat and temp sender same time .
Should sit bang on halfwayand never move once warm .

 

[RIC172]

Change stat and temp sender same time .
Should sit bang on halfwayand never move once warm .

Yeah I’ll get a new thermostat from Renault along with some type D coolant. Is the temp sender the same as the coolant temp sensor?

 

[Amos91]

Yeah I’ll get a new thermostat from Renault along with some type D coolant. Is the temp sender the same as the coolant temp sensor?

Yep.

 

[MrBlonde]

I have just changed the temp sensor on mine & now it only sits on the 3rd line but does up to half way if sitting in traffic,then once movinh again goes back down to the 3rd line.Where as before with the old sensor it went upto half even when driving.
Maybe this could be as i bought the new one from ECP & think if i get a genuine sensor it will cure this.
Fan cuts in etc tho,just temp sits low on driving.

 

[Amos91]

I have just changed the temp sensor on mine & now it only sits on the 3rd line but does up to half way if sitting in traffic,then once movinh again goes back down to the 3rd line.Where as before with the old sensor it went upto half even when driving.
Maybe this could be as i bought the new one from ECP & think if i get a genuine sensor it will cure this.
Fan cuts in etc tho,just temp sits low on driving.

Sounds like the thermostat is stuck open slightly. When there is no air flow the heat is enough to get it up to running temp.

 

[RIC172]

I have just changed the temp sensor on mine & now it only sits on the 3rd line but does up to half way if sitting in traffic,then once movinh again goes back down to the 3rd line.Where as before with the old sensor it went upto half even when driving.
Maybe this could be as i bought the new one from ECP & think if i get a genuine sensor it will cure this.
Fan cuts in etc tho,just temp sits low on driving.

That’s odd, in your case I would probably change the thermostat too first and see how the temperature behaves. If the temperature still doesn’t read properly then swap the old coolant temp sensor back again?

I changed my CTS over earlier (eurocarparts again lol) and it hasn’t cured my problem so my next job is to change the thermostat. I’ve kept the old CTS in case I need to swap it back again if the one from Euro Car Parts is no good

 

[MrBlonde]

Yeah it does seem like the thermostat maybe stuck slightly,but then it doesnt explain why it started doing this as soon as i changed the sensor.
But i still have the old sensor and will put a new thermostat in and see how it is after that,i did replace it about 3 years ago tho.But then it was only a ecp part one i think.

Maybe worth getting proper Renault sensor and thermostat i think.

The heater in the car is fine tho,nice and warm.Heats up quick to.

 

[Hyperhatch]

I just brought one of these......

Tells you exactly what’s going on. Takes all of 5 seconds to plug into the OBD port. You can leave it on or just unplug it when you are happy. It also can be used for other displays and some fault resetting. Not bad for £30. Its got to be far more accurate than the dial?!

 

[Hyperhatch]

I just brought one of these......

View attachment 1342719

Tells you exactly what’s going on. Takes all of 5 seconds to plug into the OBD port. You can leave it on or just unplug it when you are happy. It also can be used for other displays and some fault resetting. Not bad for £30.

View attachment 1342720

Can’t help with the problem, mine gets to halfway faster than others have said but I don’t seam to have any temperature related running issues. Cheers

 

[R3k1355]

Its got to be far more accurate than the dial?!

Usually, but can be annoying too.

The stock dial will have some dead-zone built into it, to keep the driver from panicking at small temperature fluctuations.
It will read 'normal' if the temperature is 10-15 degree's either side of that, because in reality the temperature does change slightly depending on driving conditions.

 

[Amos91]

Yeah it does seem like the thermostat maybe stuck slightly,but then it doesnt explain why it started doing this as soon as i changed the sensor.
But i still have the old sensor and will put a new thermostat in and see how it is after that,i did replace it about 3 years ago tho.But then it was only a ecp part one i think.

Maybe worth getting proper Renault sensor and thermostat i think.

The heater in the car is fine tho,nice and warm.Heats up quick to.

Could try bleeding the system, might be some air stuck after changing the CTS.

Usually, but can be annoying too.

The stock dial will have some dead-zone built into it, to keep the driver from panicking at small temperature fluctuations.
It will read 'normal' if the temperature is 10-15 degree's either side of that, because in reality the temperature does change slightly depending on driving conditions.

I did a brief bit of testing on this. The coolant gauge seems to stay in the middle from 88°C up to at least 98°C (as far as I tested it down the dual carriageway).

 

[RIC172]

Quick update: I swapped the old coolant temp sensor over for a Euro Crap Parts one and low and behold the reading is way out now. I’m therefore putting the old sensor back on this week and I’ll also fit a genuine Renault thermostat to the car soon too. Once I’ve done the thermostat I’ll report back to say whether it’s fixed the temperature readings, fingers crossed!

 

[MrBlonde]

Same mate,I've just replaced the ecp sensor for the old one just to see if it's any different on my drive to work.if so it's the cheap ecp one or like you said may need a bleed.

 

[Amos91]

This is the one I bought a few months ago, works fine:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Coolant-...291123&hash=item1a28364fdf:g:kKYAAOSwvjdZUkle

Paired with a genuine stat.