Temp gauge rising

Ok, update! Changed the thermostat, pump and all gaskets related. When driving it gets to the let’s say 3/4 mark but holds steady there. Not exactly sure what temp that is. Not really sure what else to do. Does everyone’s car run steady at 190? I’ve tested the fan switch and it kicks in at 210 and stays on till 190 or so. (Boiling water method with multimeter) is it possible my gauge is faulty?
 
Could it possibly be a bad temperature gauge sending unit? That pretty much all that’s left. Lol
Where would I check the temperature with the gun???
 
Steady at some point is what you want.... means that the pump is moving enough hot coolant to the radiator as necessary, the radiator is efficiently dumping that heat and cooling the water back down, and the thermostat is controlling the flow to maintain a constant temperature as conditions change.

The actual position of the needle is going to depend on the idiosyncrasies of your gauge and the temp sender in the head. If you're curious you can check with an IR temp gun to see what temperature you're getting with needle where it is. For what it's worth, all of my cars hold the needle somewhere between 3:00 and 2:00.
 
Mike Schofield said:
Could it possibly be a bad temperature gauge sending unit? That pretty much all that’s left. Lol
Where would I check the temperature with the gun???
Click to expand...

Mike I would check the head with the thermal heat gun as it is where the sender is. I do have a spare sender and instrument cluster you could borrow to see if they both read the same.

TonyK.

Grimsby Ontario Canada.
 
Gotcha! When I get the chance to check the head temp I’ll let you know my findings.
I drove the car to Brantford and back yesterday in 30+ degree heat and the gauge stayed steady at the 2 ocklock position the whole way.....
 
Ok, had her out today and the gauge while driving hovered between the 2 and three ocklock mark. Usually closer to 190. As a side note, maybe I’m stupid but what are the increments for the gauge?! My thoughts were by 5s but that didn’t quite fit....
Anyway, when I got her home I took my ir temp gun and measured right around where the sending sensor is. The numbers (while idling) were staying between 200 and 210 degrees. Sometimes swinging up to 220 depending on where the laser was. All the while the dash gauge was reading 3 ocklock. The if temps seem pretty normal to me as the fans kick in at about 200.....
Mr Tony K has generously lent me a sensor and instrument cluster to try and I will do so when I can pick them up. But until then, any thoughts??
 
Mike Schofield said:
Ok, had her out today and the gauge while driving hovered between the 2 and three ocklock mark. Usually closer to 190. As a side note, maybe I’m stupid but what are the increments for the gauge?! My thoughts were by 5s but that didn’t quite fit....
Anyway, when I got her home I took my ir temp gun and measured right around where the sending sensor is. The numbers (while idling) were staying between 200 and 210 degrees. Sometimes swinging up to 220 depending on where the laser was. All the while the dash gauge was reading 3 ocklock. The if temps seem pretty normal to me as the fans kick in at about 200.....
Mr Tony K has generously lent me a sensor and instrument cluster to try and I will do so when I can pick them up. But until then, any thoughts??
Click to expand...
IR thermometers usually assume an emissivity of .95. If you are measuring on bare metal, it could be off, and if it is shiny metal (like a clean aluminum head), if could be way off. A good way to improve measurement accuracy is to blacken the area you are measuring with flat paint or I suppose dirt or grease.
 
Hi Mike,
Bit late on this, but I had a similar issue with my 89 X1/9, would hold at 1/2 way when driving, but when stationary for any reason temp gauge would rise to 3/4 almost immediately. I had been loosing coolant so replaced all the radiator hoses, and there are a lot, 7 in all, but also, on checking the radiator cap saw the seals were pretty stuffed, so brought a new $15 cap. Now temp stays below 1/2 all the time with no issues. Not sure whether it was the hoses, but my money is on that simple little cap, as a weak seal means reduced pressure to force coolant around the system, and with the X1/9 is a long convoluted system pumping coolant through the entire length of the car from a radiator up front to a little engine at the back. Got my full radiator hose set relatively cheaply from the UK, although ironically the manufacturer is actually based in Australia.
 
That is a really good point now that you mention it.....my cap on the expansion tank is definitely showing wear. As a matter of fact the opening around the tank itself where the cap sits has some surface rust..
Definitely something to think about.
Thanks!
 
Ok, here’s one for you...was out today in 5-6 degree weather (40-42 Fahrenheit) and couldn’t get warm air out of the vents closest to the door/window. Had warm air out of the middle vents and could get warm air out of the defrost vent....could this be contributing to my somewhat higher running temp?(210-215) what am I missing?
 
On another note, I was able to get my hands on a 10” spal fan. I was running two 7” aftermarket fans previously. I have yet to drive the car with the new spal fan but thought I’d do a comparison to the stock fan.
The 7” aftermarket fans were pulling pitiful amounts of air. The spal fan pulled significantly more air but surprisingly the stock seemed to be most powerful. I’m going to do a comparison video this weekend.
I think I’ll run the single spal cause it’s quieter and much slimmer. I’m curious if the spal fan will help lower my running temp....results to come.
 
Mike Schofield said:
Ok, here’s one for you...was out today in 5-6 degree weather (40-42 Fahrenheit) and couldn’t get warm air out of the vents closest to the door/window. Had warm air out of the middle vents and could get warm air out of the defrost vent....could this be contributing to my somewhat higher running temp?(210-215) what am I missing?
Click to expand...

On a non AC car the outer vents only deliver ambient exterior air. The center, defrost and floor vents are the only ones that deliver conditioned air, ie heated.
 
I'd be a little concerned if you're running around 2 O'clock, as having had 3 X1/9's (1 1980 and 2 1989's) they have always normally operated between 4 - 3 O'Clock. All used to drift up around 2 when stationary at the lights on a hot day when I would normally resort to turning the heater on full to bring the temperature down (which on a hot day is not much fun). Once back under way the temp would always come down below 3, probably because of the increased airflow through the radiator and increased pumping of water through the system due to higher revs.
As mentioned, when I replaced all the hoses and the radiator cap the temp never gets past 3. What I did notice when changing the hoses, is when I flushed the system there was quite a lot of rust sludge that came out, which is a bit of a worry for the future as other posts have been around having to replace various sections of the system through rusting. This was probably another issue that was creating overheating, restricted flow through sediment build up. Maybe another thing to try is a full blown flush of the system, heat her up with a dose of radiator flush, and disconnect as many of your hoses as possible to drain as much crap out as you can. My regret in hindsight, was not stuffing the old garden hose up front any turning it on to flush the radiator, then the central pipes and finally through the engine. (based on the sediment I encountered may still do the flush-it-all process anyway).
Then connect it all back up again, fill with coolant and anti-freeze, and bleed.
I think the thing to remember in traditional front engine layouts, when flushing the radiator that's all you need to do as it's pretty much two short hoses to/from the engine block, where the X1/9 there's all form of plumping to go through.
 
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