Temperature Sensor

[Scott]

After sitting in Hovis' rallye at Pugfest waiting for a passenger run on the hillclimb, I noticed his water temperature wasn't increasing while it was idling in traffic...he said he's fitted the temperature sensor (I believe that was the one - It's purple, if that helps at all) from a 205, which kicks in the fans at a much lower temperature.

Does anyone have any more info about this? I'd be interested in doing this with the 6 as there are some days I'm sat in a lot of traffic but it's not always possible to get out and unplug the sensor for the fans. I know it'd be helpful for a number of other people too!

Cheers

[Matt]

That sensor is the brown one no? In the thermo housing? If so the rallye doesn't have one? Well mine doesn't. Unless he means a different one to the one we unplug all the time

[Scott]

Yours doesn't have one? I'm pretty sure it should mate, I don't think they went that far on making it poverty spec

That sensor is for the fans to kick in, so I'm not sure if it's that one, or the actual coolant temperature sensor (I don't think they're the same thing?!)

Also for what it's worth, I've been looking around for more info on both the 205 forum and 306gti6 and can't really seem to find much on it.

[Niall]

Ph2/fail have the switch on the radiator below the top hose

Tbh you could just put a new temp sensor in. The engine is designed to get that hot. Peugeot spent millions developing the car, they wouldn't of overlooked something like that.
You could also just run two wires into the cabin and a switch somewhere for the fans.

Alternatively, depending on how the sensor works (drop voltage I would of thought) you could be a geek and work out what voltage relates to what temp and wack a variable resistor in line to fool the fan controller into thinking the car is running hotter than it actually is.
This won't affect running as the ECU temp is taken from a separate sensor.

[lewisdmz]

Does your air con work? There's a simple mod to make the air con button turn on high speed fans isn't there?

I know what you mean about the temp though, I'm always uneasy as it works up towards the 107 or whatever it is before the fans kick in. Does seem they leave it a little bit late ha...

[Niall]

Yeah you can use the Ac button.
I might work out how to fit a variable resistor so it's adjustable. Ideal really for time of year. Too many people forget you can over cool your engine and running a engine too cold can do just as much damage as over heating.
With the fans on high speed constant, my temp drops to about 65 on a run. Considering its supposed to be running at 90 (gti runs hot, 1.8 should run at about 75), if you sit at 3.5k on a motorway run for a while, this will take its toll on your engine. You want to set it up so it sticks to 90. A new thermostat should help with this to start with.

[Scott]

My thermostat is fine Niall, and my fans work as expected. My AC doesn't work Lewis, but I do plan on having it working at some point so was considering putting a switch in.

I'm talking about coolant, just to be clear. Mine runs at 80 all day long until I get in traffic. On a motorway run it'll sit just below 80. Oil temperature will happily sit at 90 even if the fans are on high-speed constantly, so there are no problems in that respect. I'd just rather not having the water getting close to boiling point while I'm traffic if I can get another sensor which will kick the fans in before 90. I know you say Peugeot spent a lot of money on R&D with these cars, but they also overlooked a lot of simple things

[Niall]

Well tbh you shouldn't have just water in the cooling system anyway. Coolant won't boil at 100.
Your right they did overlook a lot of things but they wouldn't of overlooked that. Imagine how much that would of cost them if they sold all these pugs and they all started blowing gaskets in traffic?

I'm happy letting mine agent on and do its own thing. What I'm not happy with is the fact my thermostat doesn't work properly and I've got a massive airlock!
You will be amazed at what a difference a flush and decent coolant will make.
If it really bothers you that much, I'll look into a resistor so you can set the level the fans come on.

[Connor]

I did mention Sunday about swapping the sensor for a dturbo one, my fans always kicked in at 90

[Scott]

That's an idea actually. Should just be a case of swapping the sensor on the thermostat housing right?

Cheers Niall I get what you're saying mate, but remember the cambelt interval was originally 80k? It got lowered to 60k after a load snapped prematurely, but even then most people know they should be done at around 30k!

My coolant was changed a couple of months ago when my cambelt was done

[Jonny b]

Nial and Scott what temp was your cars at on the way back? Mine just sat a 90, what did you two both do when you popped your bonnets in the lay by, my fans kick in dead at 90

[Scott]

I unplugged the brown sensor which controls the fan unit so it turns the fan on to high regardless of temperature. Once I'd done that it was sitting comfortably at 80. Beforehand though it was between 90 and 100 and would fluctuate as we started moving or the fans kicked in.

[Jonny b]

See mine has never got near 100 it gets to 90 fans come on drops to 85 then repeats, on motorway when we were moving it sits about 75

[Matt]

Mine happily sits at 85 constantly lol. Never moves, unless I leave it idling. Then it moves up creep round to about 98 then fans kick in

[mark_airey]

Mine happily sits at 85 constantly lol. Never moves, unless I leave it idling. Then it moves up creep round to about 98 then fans kick in

Are you sure the car isn't boiling and its just the gauge/sensor that is faulty Matt

[/troll]

[Matt]

Nope it's fine. Fans kick in as they should and on that side of thing ms the rallye works.

On the other hand the xsi would just sit at 100 and not cool down. Ever. Would boil away for quiet some time before I got out and unPlugged the fans!

[mark_airey]

Nope it's fine. Fans kick in as they should and on that side of thing ms the rallye works.

On the other hand the xsi would just sit at 100 and not cool down. Ever. Would boil away for quiet some time before I got out and unPlugged the fans!

Your boring, you don't bite as easily as Ed

Can you hear tapping??

[Matt]

I can hear tapping. But Tbqh I do think it's eds I can hear though not mine

[mark_airey]

I can hear tapping. But Tbqh I do think it's eds I can hear though not mine

Yeah your probably right, that will be what I can hear.

Back on topic, there has to be some info somewhere regarding what temp sensors activate at what temp hasn't there??

[Matt]

I'm guessing service box would have some sort of detail? Or get hovis to post some details up on here

[cwspellowe]

I don't understand why anyone would want to change the temp the fans kick in it?

With a properly working thermostat and temp switch, low speed fans should come in around 95degrees and high speed about 107. That alone should be enough as far as the cooling system goes?

My gti didn't overheat once. Even with the low speed fan not working it never went over 107 as the high speed fan stopped any issues. They aren't dturbo engines with their stupid ally heads and boost which is a recipe for blowing gaskets, they're operating within their normal range or they'd have set the fan speeds lower. Bit daft having high speed fans coming on AFTER potential engine damage.

Mine used to bounce off the high speed fans all the time in summer and there were no signs of gasket failure when I stripped the 160k engine down...