re: strange warning in 90q

["A. D. Morris" <allanm@primenet.com>]

>From: todd candey <tcandey@wwa.com>
>Date: Fri, 27 Sep 1996 10:25:23 -0700
>Subject: strange warning in 90q
>
>Hi all, I had an interesting thing happen last night in my 90q
>
>While driving home, I stopped at the grocery store and all was fine.
>
>Come back out of the grocery store, get in the car and start driving
>as usual, then in traffic, the water temp warning light in the
>autocheck display came on. It was red instead of yellow, indicating
>that ther was a problem.
>
>This light went out after about 20 seconds.
>
>I looked at the temp guage and it was normal, about midway between
>cold and hot. Since I was about 1.5 miles from home and the temp was
>normal, I drove it to the house. I got out and checked everything
>over, and found nothing wrong, coolant level was good, no signs of
>leaks anywhere, no noises from water pump etc., no steam....
>
>What gives?
>Anybody have any ideas?????
>
>TIA,
>- -- 

My ('88 90Q) temp gauge is flakey, and only works when it decides to, 
so when that happened to my while rolling down I-10 at 75 mph this 
summer (In Arizona) with the outside temp around 110F, I got really 
concerned.  I pulled over, poked around, and found everything okay.  
This scenario repeated about a dozen or more times, with never any 
other signs of durress.  (Working on the car during the summer is 
_not_ my favorite pastime)

After about a month, it never re-occurred.  Some Q-listers have
suggested that contacts on the temp senders can have problems - try
cleaning them and see if that helps.  Your car does have *different* 
sensors for the gauge and check system and ECUs - four in total.

-----------------------------------
Allan D. Morris
Phoenix, AZ
allanm@primenet.com
1988 90Q
-----------------------------------