A year or so ago, and for no reason, the oil temp suddenly shot to full scale i.e. 160C
As I was toodling along in traffic at the time I immediately thought it to be a problem with the guage. Sure enough, as the journey progressed it flicked back to a sensible figure and back to 160. I contacted ScoobyMania whom I'd bought the guages from and after they'd diagnosed a faulty guage, replaced it without question.This year I've been plagued with excessive oil temps of 130+ on track, Snetterton in Feb and RAF Marham in April, and have been looking for suitable oil coolers to solve the issue. Imagine my surprise when, on the way up to Scooby Shoot out, in May, the oil temp guage showed the same full scale error, this time whilst toodling along looking for petrol in Doncaster. Knowing it's a fault, I try to ignore the infernal alarm, which still sounded despite setting the alarm point to max. Again it flickered on and off but generally stayed at full scale.
I contacted ScoobyMania again and, as I was working in Nottingham that week, said I'd drop by so they could test it. On the same day I had a new windscreen fitted and disconnected and removed the guages from where they sit, in the corner of the screen. Windscreen fitted and set, I refitted and connected the guages and, no oil temp alarm. Problem sorted, I thought, just a question of disconnecting and reconnecting to reset the fault.
Next time the car was used was for the BP virgin's night. Liz and I set of for Snetterton and 100 yards from the house, the **** oil temp shoots to full scale and the alarm goes off. We went a few miles with alarm in one earand Liz's complaints about it in the other so, stopped at a lay-by to disconnect the guage. Off we set, in relative quiet when the effin alarm sounds. I'm frantic now and wondering where the damn noise is coming from. All the guages are reading normal, the oil temp is disconnected and on zero. Then it strikes me that the noise is from the controller. The guage is only a stepper motor with a couple of lights and the clever bit is done by the controller (the cheap bit).
So, under the bonnet and split the connector between the sensor and the control unit. Peace at last. The fault therefore is in the sensor and a call to ScoobyMania results in a new sensor next day. Fitted and all's fine, except, the oil temps now seem lower. The next track day will reveal whether the temps I've been seeing are true or false and whether I need that cooler.
To continue in the same vein. Over the last few weeks, I'd noticed the boost had dropped from 1.6bar peak to 1.4bar and no amount of head scratching and fiddling would see the boost levels return. Yesterday was a mapping session with Zak and on my way down the M11 I gave it a quick squirt and noticed the boost went to 1.5bar. Odd I thought and mentioned it to Zak who was equally bemused.
We set off for the mapping with Zak giving instructions. "Hold 0.5bar up to 5K" this we did a few times until, "OK, now 1,0bar" roads were a little busy and the gaps in the traffic needed to be judged to manage these short bursts. I'm watching the Defi boost guage and Zaks looking at his lap top. I can only see 0.7bar and try as I may, even flooring it in 5th, it won't go over 0.7bar.
Zak looks up, with a quizzical expression, as if to say "wtf are you doing?" I thought he'd done something to limit the boost, he thinks I've lost the plot and, when we compare notes, he's seeing 1.4bar to my 0.7bar. "OK" he says "Use the AVCR for boost read out". Off we set and the AVCR shows 0.7bar tops.
Up goes the bonnet to more head scratching & conjecture. The same piece of tubing connects the ecu MAP sensor, Defi and AVCR sensors. Take off the tube, check it for pinholes etc., replace it, try again. Same thing 0.7bar Defi & AVCR - 1.4bar ecu. Pulled over again and removed the only part that was common to the two indicators and not the ecu, a small disc filter. That removed, we set off again and all's in agreement.
So, the moral of the tale, when the guages are giving unusual readings, check the guages first. Just because they're expensive doesn't mean they're infallible or indestructible. Oh! And, if you want Defis, ScoobyMania stock them at good prices and their after sales service is second to none.
Sorry it took so long
