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Coolant pressure sensor
55ant - 11/3/10 at 07:41 PM

Hello everyone,

one of my worries is a coolant hose falling of or bursting etc, and loosing all the collant, killing the engine, this got me thinking why dont cars have a coolant pressure sensor? or do they? cant say i have ever come across one, even just a little red led that came on could be a real life saver.


ant

Paul (Notts) - 11/3/10 at 08:42 PM

I have a level sensor in my header tank connected to a large red light on the dash and a green light to show its ok.

02GF74 - 11/3/10 at 08:47 PM

quote:
Originally posted by 55ant
this got me thinking why dont cars have a coolant pressure sensor?


because production cars are designed so that the hoses don't pop off.

you may ask why cars don't have a windscreen missing sensor or ........

... but many do have a low level coolant sensor - may be more useful than pressure sensor since when system is cold i.e. no pressure, the light will come on and worry you.

it probably isn't that big a deal to fit an oil pressure sensor, I'd imagine it will work fine, should your really want.

boggle - 11/3/10 at 08:50 PM

if the hose came off then the temp guage would let you know....

it would go up.....

55ant - 11/3/10 at 09:15 PM

ah cool, i realise hoses arnt supposed to pop of, but cars arnt meant to over heat but most have temp guages,

i didnt think the temp guage went if up all coolant was lost, due to conductivity or some fancy word like that,

like the sound of a coolant level light, ill keep an eye out for one,
cheers all.

nitram38 - 11/3/10 at 09:28 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Paul (Notts)
I have a level sensor in my header tank connected to a large red light on the dash and a green light to show its ok.


Me too. Especially since my engine is behind me!

nitram38 - 11/3/10 at 09:31 PM

quote:
Originally posted by boggle
if the hose came off then the temp guage would let you know....

it would go up.....


On a K-series it don't! Thats why they suffer so many failures. Loss of coolant means the temp sensor is in an empty housing and reads normal.
I had this prob on my first car (F1-2).
On later rovers and MG's they put a float switch in the expansion tank.
I have an R1 on the MotaLeira, but I still have fitted an MG expansion tank with switch

britishtrident - 12/3/10 at 08:00 AM

quote:
Originally posted by boggle
if the hose came off then the temp guage would let you know....

it would go up.....


On a lot of engines the gauge won't tell you if the engine is boiling, on a lot of modern car electronics systems the gauge isn't driven directly by the temperature sensor but by the ECU, if the ECU gets a signal from the sensor that is suddenly out of the normal range it will ignore it as a a faulty sensor and substitute a default normal value.

britishtrident - 12/3/10 at 08:04 AM

I have been looking at one these for while as potential mini project

http://www.lrseries.com/shop/product/listing/15117/3305/21/PCF500060-EXPANSION-TANK-AND-SENSOR-UNIT.html


Also see thread http://www.locostbuilders.co.uk/viewthread.php?tid=121137&page=&contribmessage=none