Ferrari Mailing List: Re: Ferrari Digest, Vol 109, Issue 4

Larry,

From my experience, it's usually the thermistor 

(http://us.wow.com/search?s_pt=aolsem&s_it=aolsem&s_chn=63&q=types%20of%20thermistor) 

that fails.

How does the temp gauge compare to  the oil temp gauge(temperature?). Does 

oil temp show accurately?

In any case, I bet the sending unit went south. I've never had to replace a 

gauge in close to 50yrs of Ferrari ownership. Also, what they quoted you, 

seems like a 'you own a Ferrari so money is no object' price!

I'm not saying they're trying to rip you off, 'cause I don't know them, but 

get other opinions

----- Original Message ----- 

From: <ferrari-request [at] ferrarilist.com>

To: "Skip" <da-rolls [at] comcast.net>
Sent: Saturday, August 08, 2015 5:16 AM
Subject: Ferrari Digest, Vol 109, Issue 4

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Today's Topics:

  1. 512TR temperature sending unit (Larry Bard)
  2. Re: 512TR temperature sending unit (Peter Rychel)

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Message: 1
Date: Fri, 7 Aug 2015 10:38:21 -0400
From: Larry Bard <larrybard [at] hotmail.com>
To: Ferrarilist <ferrari [at] ferrarilist.com>
Subject: [Ferrari] 512TR temperature sending unit
Message-ID: <SNT149-W69771B7856F1ED4938DF84AE730 [at] phx.gbl>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Catching up with some month-long issues after being away for the last 30 

days driving around the country (almost 9,000) miles with two friends --  

in their Ford hybrid.  (Yeah, would have been a lot more fun in one of my 

cars, but they wouldn't have exactly gotten over 36 MPG.)

Anyway, just before I left my 1992 512TR went to a local, apparently 

competent, mechanic for its annual inspection.  Everything was fine --  

except for (according to him) the temperature sending unit, and (also 

according to him) the gauge itself.  I had noticed that the last few times 

I had driven the car the gauge seemed to read normally, and then stopped 

registering at all.  On and off, typically for minutes at a time.  Cooling 

system seemed to be working okay (fans coming on when temperature reached 

about 195).

If I understood him correctly, the mechanic wants to charge me $350 for 

both (not each) a new "temperature sending unit" and replacement gauge, 

plus an additional $350 labor.  They would first replace the sending unit, 

and if the gauge then worked properly of course not replace the latter, 

but they said that based on their tests the gauge was not sweeping 

correctly.

I am almost undoubtedly one of the least mechanically knowledgeable people 

on this list, so please forgive the possibly naive questions, but:

if indeed the sending unit is malfunctioning, I would have guessed that 

the gauge might well not also need replacement because it might be 

functioning properly, with the erratic readings solely attributable to the 

sending unit.  So what are the chances that the sending unit needs 

replacement, but not the gauge?  (Seems easy enough to do what they 

propose and change the sending unit first and then see if the gauge is 

working correctly before also replacing it; and if the mechanic were one 

of my regular trusted mechanics I wouldn't be wary.)

Assuming, for the moment, that both the sending unit and gauge require 

replacement, $350 sounds to me to possibly be excessive parts cost and 

labor cost for replacing just the former (a quick search shows that a 

sending unit is apparently available from Rutlands for about $60 plus 

shipping), and possibly even for replacing both.  (All Ferrari Parts seems 

to sell gauges for $165. http://www.allferrariparts.com/147163.html )

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Larry

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Message: 2
Date: Fri, 7 Aug 2015 23:39:52 -0700
From: Peter Rychel <dino308gt4 [at] hotmail.com>
To: Larry Bard <larrybard [at] hotmail.com>
Cc: The FerrariList <ferrari [at] ferrarilist.com>
Subject: Re: [Ferrari] 512TR temperature sending unit
Message-ID: <BAY174-W449D4B4FE638E7171BE6ACDF720 [at] phx.gbl>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

I've found with my ancient 308, anything can (and will, given time) go. I
had my speedometer fail twice; once at the time of purchase and another
many years later. The first fix was easy, just cleaned the connections
at the sending unit and that lasted for years. The second time it
stopped working, I did the same with no results. So I replaced the
sending unit as they are prone to failure (original large body style)
and the gauge still didn't work! So I replaced the speedometer and now
it's working again (which was a monumental effort because I couldn't
find a GT4-specific speedo... I have no room in this email to write how
involved and complicated that was!).

The point is, both
components need to be tested. Sending units fail more frequently because
they're in the harshest of environments. But time is a harsh
environment as well! The gauge COULD be the culprit and needs
replacement.

As for pricing, well... Maybe try to make a deal?
It's a $700 job regardless if the gauge/sending unit total is $200 and
it takes almost four hours to do it, or if you're lucky (he, he, yeah
right), it only takes an hour-and-half to do, but because of rarity,
you're talking about nearly $500 worth of parts. Still a $700 job. Maybe
the pricing total reflects the possibility this could turn into a BIG

job and needs to be covered for the "unexpected" (which always seems to be 

expected!).

Who's the mechanic? Dealer or independent, or even familiar with foreign 

cars?

Peter

From: larrybard [at] hotmail.com
Date: Fri, 7 Aug 2015 10:38:21 -0400
Subject: [Ferrari] 512TR temperature sending unit
CC: ferrari [at] ferrarilist.com
To: dino308gt4 [at] hotmail.com

Catching up with some month-long issues after being away for the last 30 

days driving around the country (almost 9,000) miles with two friends --  