My R52 never had the OEM temp gauge, it has the factory NAV system, and those cars with the NAV system always come with idiot lights....but you already knew that.....

The "easy button" way for you may be the rad hose, but that is entirely the wrong place to put the sender....and if you want to keep calling me an idiot, you better have all your facts straight about members and their cars before calling someone out on an open forum.....

Bryan

 

I wonder if there's a way to piggyback the signal off of the OEM temp sensor in the head to be used for the gauge.

 

Doubtful, usually the senders and the gauges are calibrated to each other...if you start adding other gauges to the one sender, more resistance will be involved for the sender to try and operated two gauges and neither reading will be correct

Bryan

 

Yeah, that's around what I was figuring. A little hard to make a adapter for both the gauge sender and the OEM sender with the space and the location. Well, I mean, could drill into the block but that just seems a little overkill for a water temp gauge.
Is the hose sender adapter really that bad of a place to install a temp gauge sender? Regardless of where it is in the coolant system? They can be placed just about anywhere with ~3.4" of straight hose. Of course figuring that the t-stat is operating as normal.
We haven't had any direct mentions of issues or complaints about the operation of any of our gauge kits, but we're always hungry for more information.

 

You just basically answered your own question with the t-stat issue......some think that it's OK to put the sender after the t-stat....but what happens if the t-stat fails to open?? You will not get a "hot water reading" on your gauge with the sender mounted in the radiator hose. You and I and a few others know that these cars have t-stat issues.....and they fail often

The "ideal" place is in the block or cylinder head before the t-stat....that way you can see the water temp rise as the car warms up. If it's mounted in the radiator hose, it won't show a warm or hot reading until the t-stat opens....if it even does....and if it sticks shut, you won't be able to tell how warm the water temp is because all the hot water is still in the engine block and head.....while your temp gauge still reads "cold"......and now your engine is in meltdown mode

Again.....all vehicle manufacturers put the temp gauge senders before the t-stat for this very reason.....for those that think it's OK to put the sender after the t-stat, I sure would not want them working on anything I own

Bryan

 

It really isn't, but it's not the most ideal spot.

Consider a factory setup.
You have at least an idiot light, but most have a gauge and the light.
If you have a stuck t-stat... you won't know anything is wrong until the gauge is pegging the hot side and/or the idiot light is on.

Now, you add a sensor in the rad hose.
You still won't know if the t-stat is stuck closed. Nothing has changed.
However, assuming you don't have a t-stat that sticks closed every other week, you now have a slightly better idea of what the water temps are going thru the rad and you still have the OEM warnings to warn you of impeding doom.

Overall, the rad hose is a bandaid location for the water temp, for reasons as described by A383.
But, if your options are either a less-than-ideal location or none at all, I'll go with the less-than-ideal approach. Least you have SOME idea of what the water temps are.

 

I have the Scangauge II in my car set to display water and intake temps, if you don’t mind digital readouts or having something plugged into your OBD port all the time.

 

I don't see it mentioned, but the water opening in the block is right below the #3 exhaust port in the block.
1/4" pipe.

And I noticed some discussion on oil pressure OR...water temperature...me...both, no question as to which.
The oil takeoff is in the filter housing.

Mike

 

Is that water port actually American 1/4" pipe thread, or some Metric pitch thread?

Bryan

 

I bet it is pretty good chance it is Merican pipe thread to use Dodge sensors, like the oil pressure switch. There is no simple solution to add your own water temp gauge with your own sensor. It must be immersed in the cylinder head water jacket and there is only one spot and the ECU hogs it. ODB is the best route to get from the horse's mouth.

The reason BMW dumbed down the temp gauge reporting is because of ignorant owners. That's why we can't have nice things. Oh, and fake oil pressure gauge is not unique to Mini. Same reason we can't have nice things.

 

Hmm, better get confirmation, Oil Pressure sender is BPT, but it's in the oil filter/cooler housing and not the block.
So could go either way, but all the other bolt boss's are metric as well.

 

The oil pressure switch is not BPT. I had gone down that road before. It is American PT. It uses exact same part as on a lot of Dodge cars/vans. I agree it is the filter housing which is unique so not something you want to extend to the water temperature sensor that is mounted to the head. But still it is just a casted hole and can be taped for any thread.

 

Here, here. The Mini p//n for the temp sensor is 13621486698. I googled it and nearly all sellers list for MINI only. But this listing on Amazon shows again is used on other Dodge too, just disguised in different p/n. The drivetrain has Dodge fingerprints all over it.

 

Will verify thread pitch tomorrow.

Mike

 

Please do, I know I purchased a BSPT Male/Female with an NPT side port for my turbo feed line.
Maybe it was wrong and I ended up not using it, it's been over a year now, can't really remember.

 

Why not use an OBDII bluetooth sender and an old smart phone for display? You then have the choice for a whole buffet of displays. Been using one for years now and love it.

 

Because for some of us, tying up the phone is a real PITA, not to mention having to keep the app in the foreground. Just the fact that you have to mess with the phone while driving is enough to not consider as it is illegal in most states. And for me too many things competing for the access to OBD. Even with the multi-device harness most don't play nice with others. Most of these BT dongles are more trouble than they are worth. If you want the least of fuss get a good old hard wired OBD gauge. I prefer UtlraGauge for its display quality but I don't have one for the Mini as there are too many competition for the OBD port.

 

Oh jesus, you're gonna infuriate the forum's know-it-all, thankfully, it's easy to put him (Pnw...something) on ignore.

Besides that, there are a lot of people who use the OBD to display the engine parameters, with many using the Torque app. The only real downside I can see is you need to have a separate gauge(s) for sensors the engine doesn't track -- wideband AFR, oil temp, etc. Still, better than nothing.

 

16 + 1 post and you are doing well in clinging to your failed rationales. Try learn to read post more carefully. I endorse your OBD, just not BT but hard wired. I am sure your phone BT connectivity works every time you jump in the car without the need to fart with it.

 

Yes, definitely NPT

Mike

 

I will now confirm that the oil sender switch in the housing is standard American 3/8" National Pipe Thread, (NPT)

Bryan

 

This is a dead horse that had been postmortemed by multiple parties including myself, OCR, and most credibly CravenSpeed with an optical instrument that measures taper and pitch.

 

Has anyone used the hole in the cylinder head, next to the thermostat for a gauge plug in location ?
Or is the housing too large?
A "T" could possibly be used to keep the factory sending unit intact.

OR...was this mentioned previously and I didn't see it ?

Mike