Kwakerman
Well-Known Member
See post 8
The saga continues. According to my electrician, the gauges and sender units are not matched up (even though they came out of the same box). Two gauges and 3 sender units and the problem remains. We even tried wiring them up outside the vehicle on a test bench and got the same results. i'll just bin them and go for a different brand.
zeaphod
Well-Known Member
That is really odd - as you can tell from the posts, lots on people on here have used Durite gauges with good results. I'd be sending them back for a refund. I wonder if they have supplied 24v units? If it's any help, I buy all my electrical stuff from Vehicle Wiring Products and I haven't ever had a problem.
To be veyr honest with you i am rather disappointed at Vehicle Wiring Products. i emailed them and got a reply referring me to Durite. I am a buyer by profession and know my rights. My supplier is Vehicle Wiring Products not Durite. If someone wants to bring something up with the manufacturer it should be Vehicle Wiring products not me. Anyway, i got a reply from Durite and got the following reply:
Quote
Dash board gauges and sender units are rarely accurate across the whole sweep, they are manufactured to cover a wide range of applications and are only set to one point on the scale, and with mass production you will have a ±tolerance on that point. You also have to factor in the effects of the cable run and connections between the ‘S’ terminal on the gauge and the terminal on the sender unit and any resistance between the body of the sender unit and the earth connection on the gauge.
Also, the sender unit resistance changes exponentially from a high resistance at low temperatures to a low resistance at high temperatures.
To put it in context, it is the exception to see gauges in vehicles with numerical scales, temperature gauges will usually have coloured areas usually blue for ‘cold’ and red for ‘too hot’ and a non-descript area in-between for ‘normal’ and if you were to check 2 identical vehicles under the same conditions you would find that the needles pointed to different areas of the ‘normal’ area, that is not indicative of a fault, as long as the needle is consistently at the same point during day to day use that is the norm for that vehicle, it is when the needle does not go and stay at the usual point that indicates that a problem is developing or exists.
Unquote.
This makes absolutely no sense to me. In my understanding, a gauge who's needle jumps up to a quarter of the scale as soon as an electric current passes through it is a faulty one. I'll buy a VDO unit and bin the Durite ones and shall definitely never purchase their products again.
Quote
Dash board gauges and sender units are rarely accurate across the whole sweep, they are manufactured to cover a wide range of applications and are only set to one point on the scale, and with mass production you will have a ±tolerance on that point. You also have to factor in the effects of the cable run and connections between the ‘S’ terminal on the gauge and the terminal on the sender unit and any resistance between the body of the sender unit and the earth connection on the gauge.
Also, the sender unit resistance changes exponentially from a high resistance at low temperatures to a low resistance at high temperatures.
To put it in context, it is the exception to see gauges in vehicles with numerical scales, temperature gauges will usually have coloured areas usually blue for ‘cold’ and red for ‘too hot’ and a non-descript area in-between for ‘normal’ and if you were to check 2 identical vehicles under the same conditions you would find that the needles pointed to different areas of the ‘normal’ area, that is not indicative of a fault, as long as the needle is consistently at the same point during day to day use that is the norm for that vehicle, it is when the needle does not go and stay at the usual point that indicates that a problem is developing or exists.
Unquote.
This makes absolutely no sense to me. In my understanding, a gauge who's needle jumps up to a quarter of the scale as soon as an electric current passes through it is a faulty one. I'll buy a VDO unit and bin the Durite ones and shall definitely never purchase their products again.
zeaphod
Well-Known Member
That is a disappointing reply. As you say it appears that you have been sold two faulty units - although this has yet to be proven. In my experience the gauge will move up to the bottom of the temperature reading when power is supplied, then rise accurately with the water temperature. If both units turn out to be faulty I would be in touch with Durite directly and relay the whole tale - if they are faulty in the guarantee period you are due a refund/replacement.
