Autometer oil temp gauge strangeness
 

I installed several gauges recently including a Autometer, full-sweep, electronic, cobalt, oil temp gauge (whew!) This gauge is acting a little weird. When it starts up cold, the gauge does its little self check, then sweeps ALLL the way over to the hot side. Then as the car warms up, it will creep back to the cold side (to the stop post at 140F) then come up to, what I assume is, the correct temp.

Why is it doing that?

Also, when I am running on the highway, the oil temp struggles to reach 150F (it is chilly hear today; maybe 55F). But a extended stay at idle (5 min) or at slow speeds will bring the temp up to 220F! Is that normal? Oil pressures run around 20psi at idle and 60+psi at speed. Is this typical?

bump
 

Can I get a little ♥, maybe? I will accept educated guesses.

Wow I dont know what to say. I would try the aftermarket section. Or ask BigO. Hes boosted

all have what you posted sound right.... i think the oil temp should be lower, but it has not proven to be true...

olddrager has some posts about this...

beers :beer:

I can't answer your questions right now but I have that very gauge, along with companion oil pressure and water temp gauges, waiting for a decent pod to install them into. When I do install them I'll try to remember to report back.

BTW, where did you install the gauges? Got a pic?

Gauges are sitting in a nest of wires where my ashtray used to be, waiting for RB to get off their hind-end and get me their pod.

I should note that Autometer is kindly sending me a new sensor to determine if that is the cause of the trouble. Too bad that getting to the sensor is a serious PITA.

When I get pics of the install, I will send them. Too embarrassed to send a pick of the car now. I am driving around with no console from 'tween the front seats to the radio.

My AFR and (soon to be) boost gauge is mounted in cups behind my instrument cluster. Nice line of sight.

Hehe, well it's all good as long as u can see them. I don't have a pod or anything for my boost gauge, just sum velcro and it sits on the right of my steering column, like right in front of the odometer. Works out nicely cus u can see spd and rpms and boost at the same time. Also, my wideband gauge is in my glove box w/ emanage and boost controller...As for ur oil temp prob, I'd wait and see if the other gauge reads any differently. Here's a look if u want a little cleaner temporary setup untill ur pod arrives.
http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i2...n/DSCN0535.jpg

http://i74.photobucket.com/albums/i2...n/DSCN0522.jpg

Sry there huge...I have yet to compress any of the pics :).

Yeah, I'm waiting for the RB pod also. Got the gauges and the adapters and just waiting. Sent Jim an e-mail a couple of weeks ago asking about the pod, but no response. I hope I'm wrong, but I suspect they are running into problems with fitting 3 gauges into that space. I mocked-up a panel to fit in there and it is a REALLY tight squeeze to fit the gauges in there and still have a bit of space between them. Guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Did you have any problems installing the adapters and sensors? If you took some pics it would be helpful for all to get an idea of what it involves. If not, I will plan to do that and submit a DIY.

well, if the guage is pegging all the way to the hot side, that probably means the thermocouple fails and shorts out


and yes, your oil t's and p's are going to be all over the place and make little sense- hence mazda gave you an inteligent guage commonly referred to here as a dummy guage.

I talked to Brian and he has me in the system and will notify me when they are in. I agree, it will be an increadibly tight fit. He also said that he saw the set up and it looks pseudo-OE, and that they sourced gauges that look pseudo-OE also!!! Too bad I already bought the gauges. Oh well. BTWm they were supposed to have these in stock a few weeks ago as I understand. I am sure that they will sell a bunch if they get it out.

Sure, I can get some pics. The instructions that come with the adaptors are great. and you really dont need more for them, except a couple notes (like trimming a little more from the heater hose to allow for a better fit.) The oil press/temp adaptor is bitchy to do, especially with a turbo oil hose running right next to the filter and my LC-1 box right there as well. If you have small hands and arms you will be better off. Meaty folks would be better off removing the intake manifold (i kid.) Really, it is just tight, not difficult. I did have to break off the white holder for a brake line, as it interfered with my oil filter socket. Why mazda made it so difficult to change the oil, I will never understand.

I ran my lines through a flexi-hose (the ribbed, split hose that looks like a trachea. You run wires through it) and into the fire wall where the hood actuator runs. I widened it out to about an inch so that I could run my WB02 lines through as well. I used a dremmel with a high speed cutter (use a new one. I consider dremmel bits one time use on metal) and also wided the grommit that comes with autometer gauges to fit my split hose. I ran all the wires up and over the assorted crap under the dash and into the back of the dash and into the hole where my ashtray used to be.

:mdrmed: Officer! Resize those Pics!!!:spank:


Cant read!

BTW what is that unit with the LCD screen below your emanage?

Thanks for the hints carbon!

Interestingly, the instrument cluster comes off very easily as a pod. Then the trim ring around it comes off easy also. Four screws total (but a few clips.) I drilled through the trim ring to seat a gauge cup. You could put multiple cups there, or have a custom unit made that replaced the trim ring. That may be $

https://www.rx8club.com/attachment.p...chmentid=76840

Can you show us some finnished pictures yet?

On oil temps dude--they dont rise fast do they? Your stock dummy coolant gauge will show normal operating temp and the oil temp will not have moved off of 140F! So people are dogging their cars and the oil temps are not warm yet----not good! In 55 degrees your oil temps in normal driving will be around 170 or so. If you dog her or set in traffic it will be higher (no air flow). Speed is equal to cooling when it comes to the oil coolers. If it gets too hot 250 or so--turn your a/c on full blast to activate BOTH fans--that will cool the coolant and the oil.
It takes my car about 3-4 miles befoer my oil temp is over 150F on a 70 degree day.
Good luck with the install.
Olddragger

OOhh! I finally got the RB Gauge pod in the mail today. That was a 6-month backorder!!!! Not such a bad thing as the back order coresponed to a very busy summer where I couldnt work on the car anyway. Now I can get back to the car stuff. Pics posted when I can.

Ja, that's what Nalin said!

Really? I've had the opposite experience when driving an older car when the temp starts to rise on hot days or there's a problem in the system. I've had to crank the *heater* up full blast if there was insufficient airflow (from traffic jams, etc) to decrease the coolant temp. A/C just made it rise even higher.

Who's Nalin. And what did he say? (and should I care?:) )

Your engine oil does not have a thermostat like your coolant--it's always flowing to the oil cooler. It's not necessarily going to hit 180 degrees or so. Of course, 140 is still too low, but when I'm cruising on the highway in my nonturbo 7 and it's cool out the oil temps will only hit 150-160.

And your oil temperature gauge should not be pegging when you turn the car on, unless the cobalt series is way different from the basic Z series that I run. Mine just blips slightly--it moves perhaps a millimeter when I actually turn the key. You probably have a bad sending unit.