Overheating - fixed

• Change temperature sending unit (thermocouple)
  

Once again, the hurricanes got the best of me and I wasn't able to do anything to Bonnie Delilah (as she's known now; screw Shelly). I had an interesting car-related Saturday (detailed on the main page: www.arunluykx.com), though.

But now, the moment of truth. The new temperature sending unit (can we please just call it a thermocouple?) arrived, and lo and behold the gauge works again! It even displays the correct idle temperature - just left of centre. Taking it out for a spin the temperature did indeed go up when I applied the gas-pedal more, and cooled off at idle. Folks, the engine is running well again. The issue was -I'm ashamed to say- a lose wire, from the thermocouple, that was grounded by touching the frame.

One should note when replacing the termocouple that it is submersed with coolant, meaning that when you pull out the old thermocouple your car will start leaking coolant. I didn't feel like flushing the system again, so I just quickly removed one and replaced it with the new one (Beck/Arnley). The new one had a different bolt size and did not seem to fit particularly snug. However the temperature was fine and -once sufficiently tightened- it didn't leak coolant.

I also replaced the left window-winder (up till now I was using a little nub and my hand to pull up the window), and fixed the headlight switch (so I don't have to keep winding two wires together with my hands, almost burning myself each time). I tried replacing the key ignition but have had no success with that yet, so that'll be for next time.

Anyway, Bonnie Delilah runs safely and confidently again!

Overheating - revisited (Or how I found the temperature sending unit)

• Located temperature sending unit
  

One must understand that a car that has undergone as many upgrades as my MG has will have several loose wires, hoses, and other things leading nowhere. Because of all the upgrades its not entirely obvious what each fuse belongs too, that is after you figure out the confusion that is the stock 5 fuses that make no sense whatsoever. I can't believe the British managed to evolve to this century with this kind of horrible electrical engineering.

As such, I discovered today why the temperature gauge hasn't been doing anything. Apparently one of the loose wires under the hood is the temperature gauge wire.This explains why the engine was running ice cold all of a sudden, and the 'off the gauge' heat is probably due to the fact it was grounded somewhere, touching the alternator or some part of the body. Duhhhh. All that work for nothing!

Well, not really. The coolant was almost entirely anti-freeze, and the thermostat would have had to be replaced at some point anyway. Also I confirmed that the waterpump was OK - this is something I would have been worrying about all the time.

I reconnected the wire to the temperature sending unit, which by the way is under the thermostat housing sticking out above the alternator (no thanks to the internet here, where nobody could give me a straight answer). It's got a little contact point sticking out that should have a wire connector attached to it. See the image below for the location of the temperature sending unit (without wire connector- it broke off). This is the only picture of the thing's location on the internet.

Unless I'm completely wrong, which I highly doubt.
Correction: I just found a better image of this. Note that this picture was taken after the time of writing, and so what I said was actually correct... ;-

Refitting the cable (testing it first by touching ground to see if the temperature gauge went back to hot) I ran the engine for a while, but couldn't see any difference in temperature. I'm ordering a new temperature sending unit (about $20 on Rockauto), which I'll refit next weekend. I'm also having keys made for the locks this week. A new window winder and ignition key is in the mail already. So hopefully next weekend I'll be able to take Bonnie (it's Bonnie, screw 'Shelly') home, when she'll be fitted with some nice new tyres. That is, unless another hurricane sets me back a day.