Where to install TD5 Oil temperature sensor for gauge?

2002 Defender TD5

Hi - I'm sure someone here would have a good answer for this one. I've installed some gauges in a pod over the dash (Boost, Oil Pressure, and Oil Temperature). Boost works fine set in the turbo waste-gate line, Oil pressure works fine by using a T-piece adapter at the location of the existing oil pressure switch.

My problem is the oil temperature sensor - without knowling a better place to put it I've located it in the oil sump drain plug - it works, but obviously being where it is the oil is cool and the temperature varies little - seems to fluctuate only between 50 and 70 degrees on a gauge that starts at 50 and goes up to 150. The sensor only just protrudes beyond the drain plug as well which can't help.

Is there anywhere else I could easily put it to look more at the working temperature of the oil?

I don't want to be tapping the engine block or anything that complex - I looked at the tapped plates that fit under the oil filter - but I imagine fitting this might be a nightmare given the inaccessibility of the defender oil filter.

Is there a simple oil line in-line tapped piece of tube that I could put before the oil cooler or some such place?

All ideas gratefully received,

Cheers,

Jim

Maybe doing like this person has will give you a reading from nearer the thick of the action
https://thegippo.wordpress.com/2014...sure-gauge-oil-temperature-vdo-gauge-croytec/

They seem to have found a four way adapter from somewhere, but there are several companies offering three way ones so you could merely screw two of them together, making sure the temperature sender went in the hole nearest to the engine.

Won't the sump oil be at the same temperature as the oil going around the engine?
The oil pickup is in the bottom of the sump. If you want to know oil temperature, l'd say the sump is where you would put the sensor?
If you put it (say) in the engine block, then wouldn't you get a higher reading of a combination oil/engine temperature.

Thanks both - I saw the 4 port option but thought as a dead end fixing its ok for pressure, but not temperature - siting closest to the tapping might help but it's a cluttered and obscured area to get in more than I already have there.

If sump oil temperature should be the best spot - perhaps the low readings are because the sensor barely emerges from the end of the sump plug. I've not managed to find a longer version yet.

Is there anything that can be done at the entrance to the oil cooler?

Cheers, Jim

Not sure 70 deg is that low if you are in the UK.

lightning said:

Won't the sump oil be at the same temperature as the oil going around the engine?
The oil pickup is in the bottom of the sump. If you want to know oil temperature, l'd say the sump is where you would put the sensor?
If you put it (say) in the engine block, then wouldn't you get a higher reading of a combination oil/engine temperature.

Click to expand...

Lightning is spot on here, I would put it in the sump as far away from the block as possible to stop the heat from the block making a impact on temp reading, the oil pickup is maybe half inch off bottom of sump so when up to temperature that would provide a consistent oil temp reading.

Jumping in on an old thread from a Google search does anyone know where one would find an adapter for the standard oil sensor so that I could add an oil pressure gauge? Going from 200 to a td5 and there seems to be less bits n bobs available for them

Hi Robbie - I used one of these - allows you to keep the pressure switch and install a pressure gauge. It's quite tight and fiddly to get in on a TD5 but it does work.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sensor-Sender-Adapter-For-Oil-Temp-Oil-Pressure-Gauge-Meter-/331944474307

Hi Robbie - I used one of these - allows you to keep the pressure switch and install a pressure gauge. It's quite tight and fiddly to get in on a TD5 but it does work.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sensor-Sender-Adapter-For-Oil-Temp-Oil-Pressure-Gauge-Meter-/331944474307