how hot does your 200TDI defender get?

Ever since I got my truck (about 6 months ago) the temp gauge has stayed close to the red zone but has never overheated. Even when I drove it to Germany it ran fine. Now that I changed the sending unit and the thermostat it goes all the way to the red. Bad gauge? Or unit or what? A bit lost now.

mine does it, it bothered me so much i fitted an auxillary temp gauge and just below the red on the original gauge is actually only 80 degrees on my digital one, it then opens the thermostat and drops to around 65 degrees but hardly moves on the original one,
not saying yours is the same but gives you some idea

Mine runs at 89 degrees when fully warmed. That's in the black section that sits between the white and red sections on my temp gauge - about 2/3 of the way up. It will only run at that temp at speeds of about 40mph+. At lower speeds, it runs too cool at about 80.

Mine kept going up into the red when I was driving it home for the first time after buying the truck, but it wasn't overheating.. as I was on the hard shoulder of the M6 at the time I just pulled the wires off the sender.. it's read cold ever since!

88 normal use
goes to 95/6 then stat opens and drops it to 88 again
Tim capilliary gage for the Mini off ebay 25 quid, brilliant no more guessing fits in the place of the crap std gauge

blackstrat said:

Mine kept going up into the red when I was driving it home for the first time after buying the truck, but it wasn't overheating.. as I was on the hard shoulder of the M6 at the time I just pulled the wires off the sender.. it's read cold ever since!

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I like your style ha. Well I guess I'll get a thermo gun on it and see what it's actually doing. But usually after the 10 min drive home, the top hose be hot and the bottom is slightly cooler, so I guess everything is doing its job, so hell if I know what going on.

jrdtckr said:

I like your style ha. Well I guess I'll get a thermo gun on it and see what it's actually doing. But usually after the 10 min drive home, the top hose be hot and the bottom is slightly cooler, so I guess everything is doing its job, so hell if I know what going on.

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You need to check your cooling system carefully (rad, rad fins, thermostat & fan). 200 TDI is massively overcooled, so if it's in tip top condition, a 10 min drive should not get the bottom hose that hot IMO.

You've not said what type of drive it was, but if it was high speed, then you can eliminate the fan at least as with good airflow, it would not be required.

Half an half. 5 mins in the middle of high speed, well for a landy high speed at least. I'll recheck the hoses in the morning. But I've sprayed the rad with water so I can some what see through although it's a bit beat up but no real damage and the fan turns and has all its blades. Water pump was changed about 2 years ago though. But no real signs of play. Thermostat def works, change the sending unit. don't know what to go after next except the gauge.

mine never goes above half until i sit on the motorway for 20 mins at 60-70mph then it will creep up to below the bottom of the red. never worried me tho i thought that it was just guessing its own temp... no fan on at all

Assuming a viscous fan, they can still turn when they are broken. To test, with the engine cold, you should be able to stop the fan turning with a folded newspaper or bit of cardboard (not your hand) but when the engines hot, it should just knock it out of the way and continue spinning.

Mine does this and it drives me nuts replaced sender, thermostate, new water pump fitted new rad fitted and all the hoses inc heater hoses, it doesn't mater if i have the fan fitted or not it still reads in the red when at normal running temp but spotted some L.E.D. gauges at the recent billing show in a pod we quite like so may opt for these at some point