Fitting a Oil pressure track dog sender unit to a Mk 2/2.5 mx5/Roadster
Posted: Wed Dec 06, 2017 8:04 am
A brief history on the oil pressure sender unit and gauge from The first MK 1 NA from 1989 > 1997 to the MK 2/2.5NB from 1998 >2005.....
From 1989 > 1994 The Mk 1 NA was fitted with a working oil pressure gauge and sender unit ,from 1995 > 1997 it was fitted with an electric sender and just a High to Low gauge which basically did 'nothing' it was a dummy gauge , which is as much use as a LED just coming on with just the Ignition...
The 1994 90 bhp relaunched 1.6 MK 1 NA were all fitted with the dummy system up to 1997, the MK 1 1.8 from 1993 to 1995 had a working gauge, the Mk 1 1.8 from 1995 to 1997 were then fitted with the dummy system also, the good news for the later MK 1's with the dummy system is easy to change by just swapping the sender unit and OE oil pressure gauge from a earlier version that had a working system, it is a straight swap on the MK 1's.
There are a number of ways to to get the system working on the MK 2 and MK 2.5's most are faffy , after-market gauge added somewhere?, etc, the easiest by far is fitting a track dog sender unit which will use the OE gauge already in the instrument cluster, reaction time is not as fast as the OE MK 1 gauge but it will show something and work,But ***PLEASE NOTE*** fitting this or and after-market gauge will not give you an indication of the engines oil level ,,it is a pressure gauge,,,you will still need to open that bonnet( hood for our American users) and use the dip stick, even more so on the MK 2 1.8cc as it uses oil as a trait, which is fine as long as you keep that level correct..
Ok...Tools needed...
1 x 3.5 Ltrs of the correct oil for the Roadster
1 x new oil filter
1 x roll of PTFE tape
1 x deep 1/2" 24mm socket
1 x 3/8 17mm socket
1 x 3/8 drive ratchet
1 x 3/8 drive extension
1 x 1/2 " to 3/8 adaptor
1 x 17mm spanner
1 x medium Phillips driver
1 x pair of pointed pliers
Pop the bonnet and support it, remove the strut brace if one is fitted by way of the two 14mm nuts on each side, if you have Meister's fitted it will be 12mm,chock the rear wheels, jack the front of the roadster up , and support her with axle stands and remove the drivers side wheel .
Turn the clips on the fuel lines so they are facing the inner wing and not the engine with the pointed pliers and then just press the fuel lines down so they will be a bit more out of the way while we work past them, also pull the charcoal canister free from it's holding bracket as this will help....
Now the fun begins, because this was designed in the USA and the instructions are for a left hand drive roadster, right hand drive has a steering column in the way... I highly recommend you do this at oil and filter change...
So start her up, get her to temp....remove the oil and get the oil filter out of the way, you will now have a bit more room to move, get your hand back down and feel towards the engine block up and to the left of where the oil filter was and you should feel the sensor and the female spade connection pushed onto it, unplug the female spade connector plug , just be careful things might be a tad hot down there, let her cool down if worried, if you have had your dead pig butties and a healthy mug of tea and ready to take on the world, then lets get in there..
You will need a 24mm deep socket, extensions and ratchets to suit as above , click it all together and get in there turning anti clockwise, the reason we are using the 3/4 ratchet is simply because of room,and then remove it from the roadster...
Now we turn our attention to the track dog sender unit..
Get your PTFE thread tape...
And apply it first to the thread on the sender..
And then screw on the adapter.....
Then we need to tighten it up with a 17mm open spanner and ***17mm**** 3/4 drive socket with ratchet, we just want it nice and tight so don't over do it .....
Apply PTFE thread tape to the adapter thread...
Now we need to attach the wire connection, unscrew and remove the black plastic finger grip nut on the other side of the unit....
And put the earth hoop over the thread and tighten down the plastic hand tightened grip nut...
We can now get it on the block, time to get in there and blind feel from the top in and under the in-take again, locate the hole/thread on the block where the old sender came from and guide the new sender into place, please take your time as we do not want to cross thread the adapter on the sender, there will be swearing and cussing ... man up
Once in place and hand screwed into the block the best you can, we need to get into some great positions to go through the wheel arch to the block manoeuvring around the steering column with the open end of the 17mm spanner and turn it home so it does not leak....enjoy.
Once tight we need to re connect the OE loom side female spade connect to the track dog sender male spade connector, this will be the most fiddly ...
Once all that is done, we can put a new oil filter back on...
Open your new oil and dip a finger in...
Then wipe it onto the new oil filters thread and rubber seal...
Screw the filter back on and tight...
And lets get the oil back in 3.5 LTRs...but go by the magic dip stick level...
Now Put the oil cap back in once up to level and kick her over and let her run for 10 minutes or so, turn her off and check oil level on the dip stick, add if needed, put the charcoal canister back into its holding bracket, as we are done under here....
Now to the inside...
Remove the top half off the ignition cowling it just pops apart...
Remove the instrument cluster cover pod by way off a sharp pull forward to pop the retaining clips....
Remove the 4 x Phillips screws that hold the instrument cluster to the dash...
Manoeuvre the instrument cluster so you can unplug the electric plugs on the back x 2 one on the top left and one on the top right, once unplugged ... press the plastic fascia holding taps free from the body of the cluster, now there are two sets ,a clear set for the front clear cover and a black set that removes the whole front, we need to do the black ones......
Once removed we need to pop the needle off the oil gauge now this can be done by either pulling the needle off with your fingertips being careful not to bend the shaft they mount to , or if they are stiff to remove get 2 teaspoons 1 either side of the needle base and gently lever the needle off until it is loose enough to remove with your fingers don't rush this take your time not to force or break anything then re-plug all the electric plugs into the back of the dial cluster and screw the 4 x Phillips screws back down to the dash board tight to the hold the cluster while we do the next bit.....
Pics are for reference only.....
Start her up to get up to temp, once up to running temp replace the needle to where you personally prefer it to be (do not press over hard as we do not want the needle to stick), once happy give her some revs, the needle should rise and fall back to where you set it, if not pop it back off and set it again until happy...
Now it is just a case of putting everything back together, pop the two sections of the front instrument cluster back into place, take your time as the lugs can easily break, once in place pop the cover pod back in there is a guide pin on the cover at the back that marries up with the dash, once that is in and pushed into place, pop the top of the ignition cowling back on, put your wheel back on, get her back on the ground, make sure you torque the wheel nuts up, remove the chocks from the rear wheels... and that's it, collect your money from the swear jar and go get a pint,you deserve it.....well done .
As always any questions please ask ,it is what we are here for..
If you have found this guide to be useful, helpful or as helped you with your roadster with saving on garage costs , please consider making a donation to keep these gates open and available for others and so new info can still be added to carry on helping.
M-m
From 1989 > 1994 The Mk 1 NA was fitted with a working oil pressure gauge and sender unit ,from 1995 > 1997 it was fitted with an electric sender and just a High to Low gauge which basically did 'nothing' it was a dummy gauge , which is as much use as a LED just coming on with just the Ignition...
The 1994 90 bhp relaunched 1.6 MK 1 NA were all fitted with the dummy system up to 1997, the MK 1 1.8 from 1993 to 1995 had a working gauge, the Mk 1 1.8 from 1995 to 1997 were then fitted with the dummy system also, the good news for the later MK 1's with the dummy system is easy to change by just swapping the sender unit and OE oil pressure gauge from a earlier version that had a working system, it is a straight swap on the MK 1's.
There are a number of ways to to get the system working on the MK 2 and MK 2.5's most are faffy , after-market gauge added somewhere?, etc, the easiest by far is fitting a track dog sender unit which will use the OE gauge already in the instrument cluster, reaction time is not as fast as the OE MK 1 gauge but it will show something and work,But ***PLEASE NOTE*** fitting this or and after-market gauge will not give you an indication of the engines oil level ,,it is a pressure gauge,,,you will still need to open that bonnet( hood for our American users) and use the dip stick, even more so on the MK 2 1.8cc as it uses oil as a trait, which is fine as long as you keep that level correct..
Ok...Tools needed...
1 x 3.5 Ltrs of the correct oil for the Roadster
1 x new oil filter
1 x roll of PTFE tape
1 x deep 1/2" 24mm socket
1 x 3/8 17mm socket
1 x 3/8 drive ratchet
1 x 3/8 drive extension
1 x 1/2 " to 3/8 adaptor
1 x 17mm spanner
1 x medium Phillips driver
1 x pair of pointed pliers
Pop the bonnet and support it, remove the strut brace if one is fitted by way of the two 14mm nuts on each side, if you have Meister's fitted it will be 12mm,chock the rear wheels, jack the front of the roadster up , and support her with axle stands and remove the drivers side wheel .
Turn the clips on the fuel lines so they are facing the inner wing and not the engine with the pointed pliers and then just press the fuel lines down so they will be a bit more out of the way while we work past them, also pull the charcoal canister free from it's holding bracket as this will help....
Now the fun begins, because this was designed in the USA and the instructions are for a left hand drive roadster, right hand drive has a steering column in the way... I highly recommend you do this at oil and filter change...
So start her up, get her to temp....remove the oil and get the oil filter out of the way, you will now have a bit more room to move, get your hand back down and feel towards the engine block up and to the left of where the oil filter was and you should feel the sensor and the female spade connection pushed onto it, unplug the female spade connector plug , just be careful things might be a tad hot down there, let her cool down if worried, if you have had your dead pig butties and a healthy mug of tea and ready to take on the world, then lets get in there..
You will need a 24mm deep socket, extensions and ratchets to suit as above , click it all together and get in there turning anti clockwise, the reason we are using the 3/4 ratchet is simply because of room,and then remove it from the roadster...
Now we turn our attention to the track dog sender unit..
Get your PTFE thread tape...
And apply it first to the thread on the sender..
And then screw on the adapter.....
Then we need to tighten it up with a 17mm open spanner and ***17mm**** 3/4 drive socket with ratchet, we just want it nice and tight so don't over do it .....
Apply PTFE thread tape to the adapter thread...
Now we need to attach the wire connection, unscrew and remove the black plastic finger grip nut on the other side of the unit....
And put the earth hoop over the thread and tighten down the plastic hand tightened grip nut...
We can now get it on the block, time to get in there and blind feel from the top in and under the in-take again, locate the hole/thread on the block where the old sender came from and guide the new sender into place, please take your time as we do not want to cross thread the adapter on the sender, there will be swearing and cussing ... man up
Once in place and hand screwed into the block the best you can, we need to get into some great positions to go through the wheel arch to the block manoeuvring around the steering column with the open end of the 17mm spanner and turn it home so it does not leak....enjoy.
Once tight we need to re connect the OE loom side female spade connect to the track dog sender male spade connector, this will be the most fiddly ...
Once all that is done, we can put a new oil filter back on...
Open your new oil and dip a finger in...
Then wipe it onto the new oil filters thread and rubber seal...
Screw the filter back on and tight...
And lets get the oil back in 3.5 LTRs...but go by the magic dip stick level...
Now Put the oil cap back in once up to level and kick her over and let her run for 10 minutes or so, turn her off and check oil level on the dip stick, add if needed, put the charcoal canister back into its holding bracket, as we are done under here....
Now to the inside...
Remove the top half off the ignition cowling it just pops apart...
Remove the instrument cluster cover pod by way off a sharp pull forward to pop the retaining clips....
Remove the 4 x Phillips screws that hold the instrument cluster to the dash...
Manoeuvre the instrument cluster so you can unplug the electric plugs on the back x 2 one on the top left and one on the top right, once unplugged ... press the plastic fascia holding taps free from the body of the cluster, now there are two sets ,a clear set for the front clear cover and a black set that removes the whole front, we need to do the black ones......
Once removed we need to pop the needle off the oil gauge now this can be done by either pulling the needle off with your fingertips being careful not to bend the shaft they mount to , or if they are stiff to remove get 2 teaspoons 1 either side of the needle base and gently lever the needle off until it is loose enough to remove with your fingers don't rush this take your time not to force or break anything then re-plug all the electric plugs into the back of the dial cluster and screw the 4 x Phillips screws back down to the dash board tight to the hold the cluster while we do the next bit.....
Pics are for reference only.....
Start her up to get up to temp, once up to running temp replace the needle to where you personally prefer it to be (do not press over hard as we do not want the needle to stick), once happy give her some revs, the needle should rise and fall back to where you set it, if not pop it back off and set it again until happy...
Now it is just a case of putting everything back together, pop the two sections of the front instrument cluster back into place, take your time as the lugs can easily break, once in place pop the cover pod back in there is a guide pin on the cover at the back that marries up with the dash, once that is in and pushed into place, pop the top of the ignition cowling back on, put your wheel back on, get her back on the ground, make sure you torque the wheel nuts up, remove the chocks from the rear wheels... and that's it, collect your money from the swear jar and go get a pint,you deserve it.....well done .
As always any questions please ask ,it is what we are here for..
If you have found this guide to be useful, helpful or as helped you with your roadster with saving on garage costs , please consider making a donation to keep these gates open and available for others and so new info can still be added to carry on helping.
M-m