Durite water temperature gauge

Does anyone have a Durite water temperature gauge fitted? If so, what's the reading when the engine is stone cold? I installed one last night and it hits 50 degrees as soon as power is applied (engine is cold - hasn't run for a few days). Surely this cannot be normal.

Sounds like a short or faulty sensor. Is it an electric one? If so fit a mechanical one. Much more reliable

yes it's electric. gggrrrr i'm not a happy chappy. el-cheapo TIM electric gauge that was fitted instead of it never gave me any problems.

Have you used the durite sender too?

Yes of course.

reiny said:

Yes of course.

Click to expand...

Then run a new temporary wire between sender and gauge and see if it does the same thing.
If it does, send it back if it doesn't you have a short , probably around the block somewhere as the heat makes the insulation brittle over time.

Thanks. Will give it a shot.

More likely a poor earth between the engine and chassis or the chassis and battery. These types of gauges are sensitive to voltage and if there are any poor earth connections it results in a voltage difference between the sender outer body and the gauge earth connection which the gauge sees as a false temperature. As a test, run a cable between the sender outer case and the gauge earth connection. With ignition on and a cold engine see if the temp gauge now reads ambient temperature.

I have had one on my 300TDi for a few years now, I used the Durite sender and no problems.
I find it very accurate in use.

This the gauges at rest.

Litch said:

I have had one on my 300TDi for a few years now, I used the Durite sender and no problems.
I find it very accurate in use.

This the gauges at rest.


View attachment 151624

Click to expand...

105K, Pah - it hasn't been anywhere!

Litch, when scrolling down I took a double take and thought "who the hell took piccies of my dash?" It looks so similiar to mine! I've got a boost gauge instead of a voltmeter.

Kwakerman said:

105K, Pah - it hasn't been anywhere!

Click to expand...

My thought exactly, you just beat me to it. 300tdi is barely run in at that mileage!

"300tdi is barely run in at that mileage!"

That isn't even the original speedo.
I bought the vehicle ex-MOD back in 1999 and replaced the KPH speedo with an old MPH one (I do however have a note of all the mileages involved!).

The 300TDi engine has covered only a fraction of that.
I had a LR Gen Parts re-power kit fitted back in 2004 and the vehicle barely covers 3K miles a year so the engine is still quite young..

I just saw your replies folks. Thanks. This evening I disconnected the sender unit and powered up the gauge. The needle jumped just a tiny bit as all the others did. As soon as I reconnected the sender, the needle shot up to 50 degrees. I gave the old girl a run tonight (everything feels so nice and tight after a rebuild) and the gauge climbed steadily to 100 degrees C. Something's definitely not working the way it should.

Sounds like a sensor mismatch or there is a resistance in the wire.
Try connecting a length of wire between the sensor and the gauge just to see if it makes any difference.

reiny said:

Litch, when scrolling down I took a double take and thought "who the hell took piccies of my dash?" It looks so similiar to mine! I've got a boost gauge instead of a voltmeter.

Click to expand...

As an aside, can you tell me how you piped up your boost gauge, where you tapped into etc? I think I’ve naused mine up!

Karls said:

As an aside, can you tell me how you piped up your boost gauge, where you tapped into etc? I think I’ve naused mine up!

Click to expand...

I tapped into the wastegate pipe for mine. I know this does not give you the manifold pressure and it would have been more accurate to drill and tap an outlet there but it is good enough for my needs. PLus is is much easier to cut and fit a t-piece in a small pipe than trying to fit it anywhere else!

Sorry for the late reply Karls. i haven't logged in for a few days. I already had a boost gauge tapped into the wastegate pipe, so i just replaced the gauge with the Durite unit. I am not too sure whether I did it the right way though. The capillary tube is much thinner than the t-piece provided. I also had a short length of rubber tube in the kit. So I connected the rubber tube into the t-piece, put the capillary inside the rubber tube and closed the gap with a couple of cable ties. I'm sure I have a small leak somewhere though as the turbo is sounding much louder than it used to so something's definitely not 100%.

The saga ain't over yet. I have ordered another gauge (including sender), fitted it and got exactly the same result. 50 quid down the drain (not to mention another sender unit).

At this point I can only blame a dodgy earth connection. How does one go about checking an earth connection? I have a multimeter but don't really know how to use it.

Have you been experiencing the engine being sluggish to turn over as that is a surefire sign of a doggy earth?

Simple to rectify.
Search and you will find a heavy earth cable connected between the battery -VE and the chassis plus one between the chassis and the engine / gearbox. Make sure that the connections are clean & tight (undo, clean, grease and tighten) and see if that makes any difference.
Although making sure your earth connections are good is never a waste of time you can carry out a simple check that will take no more than a couple of minutes. Just connect a temporary length of wire between the battery -VE (or another known good earth point) and the engine block.

If this fails to rectify the problem then it can only be damage to the harness, if you identify the connections you can then run a separate wire between them eliminating the potentially damaged wire in the harness.