Oil Pressure gauge questions

[Ian7]

I have a standard(?) electric Caterham gauge, says "Caerbont Automotive Ltd" on the back of it.

Block has a pressure transducer sender screwed into the oil gallery with a single wire into the car loom.

Curiously, the gauge has four wires going to three spade connectors on it! One matches color of wire to sender, others are a mystery.

Any ideas? (its not the back-lighting, that's separate and obvious).

 

Car wiring has had many errors and dead-ends, so maybe these are redundant?

 

Main question - if needle swings wildly and erratically when running, would you suspect gauge or sender first?

[bball7754]

Ian - The Caterham supplied oil pressure sender is known for it's unreliability. I'd vote for the sender.

 

I replaced mine on my Xflow, and it almost immediately began the same erratic behavior. Changing to a mechanical gauge has been on my to-do list for a few years now (I don't always move too fast).

 

I basically don't pay much attention to my pressure gauge, on the assumption that it's wrong. Not the smartest thing to do - but some would say the same thing about owning a Seven.

 

Steve

[scannon]

The oil pressure gauge on my Caterham started reading about half of normal last year. I put in a temporary mechanical gauge which showed even higher oil pressure than the Caerbont gauge did when it was new.

 

I put the Caerbont gauge back in and just double the reading any time I look at it.

 

Is there a mechanical gauge out there that matches the original Caerbont gauge?

[TheDingo8MyBaby]

Your best bet is just to go to a mechanical gauge. The OEM caterham ones are known to be faulty.

 

Here's an earlier discussion:

http://www.usa7s.com/vb/showthread.php?t=3913

[Croc]

Vote for the gauge being the problem. The standard gauge is pretty unreliable. Before I took it out it was acting like a windscreen wiper.

 

The mechanical gauge has been great - nice stable readings - gives plenty of confidence. Plenty of choice out there to put in the standard sized hole.

 

The closest I found to matching the original gauge style was Mocal or Racetech. Neither are a perfect match because of the missing Caterham logo.

Edited April 8, 2010 by Croc

[MHKflyer52]

I have been following your post and you might want to contact one of these businesses as they can most likely convert your gauge for you at a reasonable cost.

http://www.speedometerplus.com/

http://www.nhspeedometer.com/

Just a suggestion and no affiliation with them but they both do good work.

Here is a link to even more places that might be helpful.

http://www.vintagepartsource.com/instrument_repair.htm

Hope this helps.

[shiva]

I have the same gauge on my car. Start looking at the wiring to be sure there is no mis-contract on any of the spade and wire.

 

With the bulb hole in top looking at the back of the gauge

Center is ground

Left is signal

Right is +12v

 

Here is the installation diagram that says which wire is which.

 

http://www.caigauge.com/_wp_generated/wp5d115bab.png

[Ian7]

thx Shiva.

 

I see we are neighbors, how can I not know you, where abouts in Montreal?

 

Ian in Lachine

[shiva]

True... I didn't see that was you that posted the question.

 

If you want to test you gauge. We could swap my gauge and see what's wrong with yours. Or even the sender if needed.

 

I you want, email me in private and I'll send you my contact info.

 

Jp