Menopause at 26? (1 Viewer)

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Jul 3, 2012
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Location
Pretoria, South Africa
I hope the diagnostic experts out there can advise. My Cruiser (1988 FJ62, 3F engine, about 430 000 km or 270 000 miles) is experiencing hot flushes.

Symptoms: during driving, with no evident or repeatable reason, the temperature gauge goes up, over the red, hovers there for a second or two, and comes down to normal, all within twenty seconds or so. And just to confuse issues, it happens more frequently when my wife drives than when I do. When this happens the engine compartment does not feel abnormally hot, the oil temperature is stable, everything else carries on as normal. It has been occuring for the past few years, but then had radiator problems and the like. Now it gets worse.

Case history: I bought the truck in 2010, and have had some temperature problems: at first the radiator was partly blocked, so that anything above 2000 rpm would cause an overheat. I have since had the radiator rodded out, had the top tank desoldered, then replaced, the bottom tank desoldered, and 20 000 km ago had a new Toyota radiator, new thermostat, new pipes fitted. No other recent work that could affect the temperature gauge (New tyres, gearbox overhaul). There is some wiring problem around the radio, the aircon lights sometimes work, sometimes don't. I fitted a new sensor element, which gives a higher, but stable reading, but she still has hot flushes. And real overheating takes some 20 minutes to cool down, not 20 seconds. On a recent 3300 kn (2 000 miles) trip into the desert to look at the flowers we had day temperatures of 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees in inches) and the fan did come on from time to time, too often to my liking, but within the realm of normality. Especially when the aircon is running. So I know it works.

My thinking: Someone mentioned a bad earth in the instrument cluster. But surely the power comes from the instrument main, through the gauge, and earths through the sensor. If there was a short to earth earlier in the circuit surely the gauge indication should drop and not increase? Earthing the sensor wire to the block reproduces the same symptoms: a rapid rise in the indication, and a slower return to normal when you break the connection..

I suspect: A short circuit somewhere in the cable bundle between the gauge and the sensor. If someone has an idea where this would be likely, please advise. I would like to fit a second temperature gauge but cannot find a place, if anyone knows where please advise. I also plan to flush the engine and radiator to see what comes out. Eventually I intend servicing the viscous coupling, but, as I said, I think it is working normally.

Workaround: At the next full moon I can slaughter a black chicken, and dance around a fire naked, but, in the southern hemisphere, should I dance widdershins or anti-widdershins? Experts please advise!
 
Does your gas gauge spike at the same time. This is a common problem. The fix is a new fuel gauge. The problem is that the 60 gauge is NLA. However, I do believe that the 62 gauge is a direct swap(looks slightly different) and available through the Toyota parts system.

Dyno
 
At the next full moon I can slaughter a black chicken, and dance around a fire naked, but, in the southern hemisphere, should I dance widdershins or anti-widdershins? Experts please advise!

My vote's with widdershins...but in full disclosure, I don't speak Afrikaans...just basing my suggestions on only tangential encounters with Vodou (in practice in the Western Hemisphere, but it's roots are in central Africa) and the fact that anti-widdershins is really just shins, so I'm invoking Occam's Razor due to redundancy in grammar...

It also seems appropriate, from a spiritual sense, that you would want to go with widdershins since you are trying to reverse a spell that has already been cast...meaning the spell is already manifesting itself in the symptoms of the temp gauge spiking...

I don't believe that being in the southern hemisphere has an effect on either the interpretation of which direction is widdershins or the actually direction you rotate on the ground. You can prove this to yourself by extending your left hand, pointing it North and then rotating around the extended left hand so that it remains at the center of your rotation...then repeat after first pointing the left hand South and rotating around the extended left hand so that it remains at the center of your rotation...

But, I could be wrong...after all 'left' and 'right'...'shins' and 'widdershins'... are all arbitrary designations...whose meaning is in large part gained through the fact that we all (society) agree to identify them as the same thing...

EDIT: the chicken is a nice touch...in case you get hungry from all that spinning...up here in NY we are famous for Buffalo Chicken wings!!! Just a note, that while most native NYers will advise you to go with the Blue Cheese dipping sauce, I side with the folks from the Southwest US...Ranch dipping sauce all the way!!!
 
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Hi guys,

On the prescription from the pool of knowledge I took out the instrument panel (I do not have the right swear words to do it super easy, it was 20 minutes of things sticking and so on, but once I took off the steering wheel, and unplugged the cable clusters, and took the temp/fuel gauge cluster out of the instrument panel it was less complicated. I found a teensy set of points in the back of the fuel gauge, and cut a strip of 600 water paper to clean it up, with the aid of some alcohol. And some beer for me, it was hot work. I just hope these were the right points!
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The good news is that no smoke got out, and the fuel gauge still shows the tank almost fill.

The bad news is that there is no ways to test it, except for another long road trip, for whiih I do not have the cash right now.

As to the chicken, well, we had some lamb instead, and the old English habit of dancing widdershins, or clockwise as the new-fangles term is,comes out of the old grimoires of English witchcraft. The Zulu witchcraft does not cover temerature gauges, and I do not know the Japanese version.

I will report!

Baie dankie! No, it does not mean you should buy a donkey, it is just thank you in Die Taal.
 
That is the correct points to clean.

There is a way to test it, and it doesn't involve English warcraft, Zulu chants or even Michael Caine.

Body Chassis manual starting at BE-28. Download in my sig line.
 
I have never had good luck cleaning the points. That is not to say it wont work for you. Good Luck!

Dyno
 
Thanks for that link to the manual!

I drove into town this moring, beastly hot and traffic jams all over, so I had the aircon on, and that gauge just sat there on the quarter mark. Could have been nailed down. But that is not sufficient research, I need another long overland trip!!
 
I too, like Dyno, did not have good luck filing points. That mechanism is a simple Voltage Regulator. It knocks the 12v down to 4-7V . I replaced mine with a solid state unit that regulates at a steady 5V, as outlined in the above post link, and it works great. Temp sits right at 1/3 mark on a 2F. Fuel gauge is crap 'cuz I have a 40 gal tank.

If it doesn't work out, as Dyno pointed out, that gauge is avail from Toyota for FJ62s and you can swap the face plate if you don't like the difference, although I'm guessing yours, as an '88, is prolly the same as the US FJ62s w/ 3FE.
 

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