My outside Temp Gauge

I have a "normal" farenheit outside temp guage. It is acting silly. For the longest time its been blank and hasn't displayed the outside temp. This has been for the last 1 year. Now, sometimes when I start my car, initially it will show the temp but will go blank after a few second or a few minutes. What could be the problem? Is it an easy fix? Thanks!

Anyone?

[420 SE]

Well, I can't definitavly say for your model - I have a 126, however, from what you describe it sounds like the temp sensor on the blink - needs replacing and should just plug in.

Cheers

It comes on every morning for a few seconds but then it goes blank!

[jcyuhn]

It will show blank if it receives a nonsense input from the sensor. So a blank display is a pretty good indication that you need a new sensor. Not sure if the mounting point had changed by 1995, but on earlier 124 chassis cars the sensor itself was at the front license point, and its wiring snaked back to a plug inside the fuse box. The sensor & cable assembly itself is priced at ~$70 online.

My 1993 is doing more or less the same thing. Haven't really pursued it, so I'm uncertain if there is a fix other than the $70 cable.

- JimY

[skiier3_9]

you can simply replace the sensor itself with a 3300 ohm thermistor. What I did was cut the sensor wire as close to the end (metal sheath) as possible. Drill out the epoxy and old sensor bits from the metal sheath. Solder the new 3.3k ohm thermistor (not resistor) to the two exposed wires. Wrap one or both of the exposed leads/wires in black electrical tape. Fill the metal sheath with epoxy and shove the new thermistor into the sheath. Then let the epoxy dry a bit and screw it back into the mounting bracket on the car.

Cost: ~$10 (the termistor is a $1 item plus shipping from most online electronics retailers such as digikey.com or mouser.com)

[420 SE]

I've searched everywhere over here for a 3.3k thermistor amongst all our electronic shops and no-one has one.

I searched the digikey site and found them but somehow I don't think they are going to send me one (for $1) all the way over here.

Anyone willing to buy a couple for me and post them to me in Australia?

I know the postage will only be $2 or so 'cause I got someone to post me the MB service disks and thats all they cost.

I would love for my outside sensor to work again.

The stealer wants $180 for a new sensor cable and the wrecker wants $65 with no guarentee it will work.

PM me if you would be willing.

Cheers

[skiier3_9]

send a PM to "Chuni959" hes a member here and on 190revolution.net and he bought about 10 or so and would probably ship you one.

[G-Benz]

I'm more inclinded to believe it's the unit in the dash cluster, not the sensor.

I say this because mine STILL does the exact thing on my W124...and I replaced the sensor (and harness) with a OEM unit...took care to thread it through the original routing points and all!

No change.

I gave up on it to fix more serious issues, but I may tackle this issue if I decide to pull the cluster out someday...

[420 SE]

Originally Posted by skiier3_9

send a PM to "Chuni959" hes a member here and on 190revolution.net and he bought about 10 or so and would probably ship you one.

OK did that but got no reply - anyone else willing to buy me a couple and send them over?

Cheers