Oil Temperature Gauge

There are two types of oil temperature sensors -

• Oil Sump Plate Sensor. This sensor will screw into the oil drain plug hole, but the sensor extends upward enough that it impinges on the oil screen assembly. The instructions that come with this sensor say to drill another hole in the plate, to one side of the plug, thread it, and install the sensor there.
• Oil Pressure Relief Plug Sensor. If your engine is equipped with a dual oil pressure relief system, you can replace one of the plugs (i.e., the forwardmost one) with an oil relief plug sensor and save yourself the hassle of drilling a hole in the oil sump cover plate.

“Jerome” shows the following wiring arrangement -

You may find that the wiring arrangement shown in the (VDO) gauge installation instructions is quite different.

• In the first place, the light socket at the top of the gauge has two connections. The instructions show one of these going to the fuse box, and the other to ground.
• Then there are three wiring connections on the gauge itself:

• The (+) terminal goes to the fuse box (to a DIFFERENT fuse than the wire to the light socket);
• The (-) goes to ground;
• The third terminal (marked “S”) connects to the sender.

• The diagram also shows a ground connection from the sender. This ground is provided by the fact that the sensor screws (directly or indirectly) into the engine case.

• It is not necessary for the light socket and the gauge to get power from two separate sources. The wires can be simply spliced together and connected to the appropriate fuse (#11, for instance). If you do this, the light in the gauge will come on whenever the ignition is turned on.
• The same applies to the ground wires for the light socket and the gauge - these too can be spliced together and connected to the same grounding point.

Study the manufacturer’s instructions carefully - they are never very clear to me without a bit of study.

"Speedy" Jim wrote regarding the routing of the sender wire -

Rob added - It would be a good idea to make some kind of little support for the sender wire so that it doesn't droop and doesn’t pull on the sender itself.

If you don't want to disturb the glued carpet, you could possibly run the wire under the car all the way to the front, and then drill a hole there to get it into the luggage area. If your car has the small slot in the bodywork just under and to the left of the fuel tank for a drain tube (I can't remember if the Supers have such a drain tube), then you could run the wire through that.

Gene Berg says, "Most gauges are "horrible." He continues -

We have found the oil temperature gauge to be a good indication of increasing temperature at least, and the gauge we installed seems to be relatively accurate (against the "Gene Berg dipstick," for instance).