freek bachman

Hi,
My 280ZX with digital dashboard is working perfect except the temp gauge (is complete black). I've already checked the sensors but the problem is in the digital dash itself.
Now, I want to place an analog temp gauge (I've already bought it) but where can I place the sensor (in the coolant house there is one bolt which I can remove but I don't know if that's alright.
Look at the attachment where the arrow is.

Has anyone experience with this???
Any help is welcome
I hope you understand this, my English is not as good because I'm from the Netherlands )

Freek

SHADY280

that bolt is what holds on the thermostat housing. no coolant passes thru it. you can remove the sensor in the block of 4 facing forward that has a green single wire coming out of it, it should have a male bullet type connector and an inch of wire. that one is your gauge sensor and since you don't need that one, put the new sensor there.

freek bachman

Hi Shady280,

Does this sensor also send a signal to the ECU which controls the engine
management or does it only send a signal to the temp gauge?

Jason280ZX

Hey Freek bachman, i had the same issue, my water temp on the digi gauge didnt work also. I went to Autozone and got the simple, do it yourself, Sunpro gauge unit. What ever gauge unit you got, im pretty sure you can work with it.

You can do what Shady280 says, just remove the original sensor and place the new with the same spot, and it doesnt affect the ECU. ALSO check for how far deep the sensor goes. My Sunpro sensor went too deep that it was hitting the thermostat from that slot. So I removed the Thermotime switch sensor, with a bigger socket size adapter, in place for the new gauge sensor.

The only down side with my position slot is because i removed the Thermotime switch, i could no longer use the cold start valve. Both can work, just mine removes the use of the cold start valve, but there really isnt anything bad from doing that.

Check out this website (Xenons130.com) and download the FSM (Haynes) manual for your specific year model.

freek bachman

Hi Jason280ZX
I've already tried to get the sensor out of it but is very difficult because i have normal fingers ) or do I have to remove the waterhoses en copper waterlines before I can remove the sensor? And do I have to add some grease of ducktape for an watertight solution or can I just screw in the new sensor? I've already download the FSm inmediately after I bought the Z.)

SHADY280

that sensor with the green wire is only for the gauge not the ecu. one of the other 3 is for the ecu. just use a socket to get the sensor out, just use a deep so the wire has a place to go. use teflon tape to seal the threads, its super cheap wherever you buy your sensor from