I'm with you, OD. I'm pretty close to selling my ProSports now........

Today is was around 105 degrees out. With the radiator fans on (I have a switch so I can manually turn them on) I ran a constant 175 degrees on the freeway at an average of 78-mph. My oil temp was around 180 degrees. Either I have the best cooling RX-8 in the world or my gauges are ****. I'm leaning towards the latter....

I'm going to try to re-gound the sending units to see if it makes a difference. I'm still convinced the RB water temp adaptor is in a stupid place- we should put the sender in the main upper radiator hose where there is a constant flow of coolant.

I also don't see how the brass reducers most used on the RB adaptors to fit the ProSport senders would make a difference. It's not like the oil is flying past the reducers and not touching the sender unit. A fluid takes the shape of it's container, so the oil is going to physically touch the sending unit just like it would without an adaptor. I really don't see how this would effect readings.

But nonetheless, I'm not too enthused with my ProSports. I was going to get their fuel pressure and boost/vac gauges but I don't think so anymore....

 

It seems that the people who purchased the cheaper Performance line gauges are getting higher temp reading than the ones with the Premium line of gauges. Even so I'm starting to have my doubts too, after some hard driving today my fans remained active after I turned off the vehicle but I was only reading about 190-200 ish on the water temp gauge and 180 on the oil temp gauge before I turned off the vehicle.

 

The brass reducer shouldn't affect oil readings as the Prosport Oil Temp sender should be in the middle position which doesn't require an adapter. The outer position of the RB oil adpater is where the brass reducer and pressure sensor should be and as you correctly point out the sensor should see the correct pressure.

The RB water temp adapter w/ brass reducer looks like a problem to me. The sensor sits far enough back that it would be in a "dead leg" of coolant. Ideally the sensor should sit in the flow path to get the best readings.

I intend to install mine as is and report back my results and then modify the water temp adapter to situate the sensor better and see if there is any change.

 

Fans staying on means coolant is above 220°F or so.
That means your oil is probably around 200°F as well.

 

Where do you get that brass adapter???

 

Hmmm.... The sensors for the normal and performance gauges are likely identical. Interpreting a voltage to a stepper motor position is not rocket science. The problem with prosport readings probably can be boiled down to the quality of the grounds, the location and style of the sensor mounting, and other basic issues. Being cheaper gauges, I could see where they might be unusually effected by poor grounds or weak sensor signals. Hmm, I guess I'll see for myself in a couple weeks.

 

I have grounded in 3 different locations trying to get the gauges to read correctly --including the site mentioned by rx8 guy.
It is not the ground on my car, it is not the voltage on my car and the positions they are mounted on are exactly where my mechanicals were. the mechanicals were reading correctly. I really like the gauges so if anyone can fix this issue I am all ears--I am out of ideas.
Olddragger

 

Well, you could "trim" the signals from the senders with a resistor net.
That is what I'd do if I could see that the inaccuracy was proportional and repeatable.

 

Its from an oil pressure test kit I had at my shop, never used for anything else though.

 

Go to a hydraulic place....common adapter

 

Hydraulic Place??? Elaborate please

 

adding resistors is lodgical--but to much adventure into a world that i know little of.
As soon as the bucks are availabe (guess the wife will have to wait just a little longer for her boob) i am going back to mechanicals/ I may call Glen at Prosports 1st to see if he has any senders he can sell me and then try and see if different sender will make any difference. Some folks are getting good readings it seems.
damn Damn damn
Olddragger

 

Go to a Industrial Hydraulic Supply store.....look in the Yellow Pages.....they are quite common here...

 

she is getting them one at a time.. you are cheap..

beers

 

could we try this on Sunday (or some other time)? I want to see if it will make a difference

 

Hey everyone.. I got a call about the temp gauges and this thread and I just had to jump in here. We pulled a temp gauge off the shelf and bench tested it, similar to what another member on this thread did on the previous page. We used a hot plate with a pot of water and a digital thermometer to check the temp of the water and then checked the reading on the gauge. Our initial thought was maybe we got a batch of bad senders..
After we heated the water to 160, 180, 200, 210. we checked it against the gauge reading at each level. 158, 177, 196 214 -was the result. this was a perfomance Series gauge and like everyone else in the industry (aircore driven gauges) our are rated at 3% accuracy. The temp readings are going to depend on where you have the sender located. It seems that everyone is using just about the same location and your readings are all consistent with each other-
If anyone want us to test their gauge or sender or both we will be happy to. We stand behind our products 100%. We have been in business 35 years this year and make gauges and component parts for just about every OEM gauge company in the market. We sell 10's of thousands oil press & temp senders to other gauge companies each year so if there was a problem we would know about it quickly and other oem gauge companies would have the same problem. Keep in mind that we are here on the forum for you and only a phone call or email away if anyone has any issues. Our customer service is outstanding-we are on about 50 different forums and I have yet to see a rep from ANY gauge company on any one of them. We care what our customers say and take feedback on what they want in a gauge. When we come out with new products we go the boards first and listen to what you have to say...so if you have any questions or problems just call us 727-572-9011 and we will take care of them asap.

 

to add to the above---I did call these folks and they were very willing to listen to my problem and offer any help they could(sorry i didnt post this here). After he did the above test he called me with the results. Sure makes things puzzling to me. But, Hey-- can't ask anymore than what they are doing. I ended up grounding the senders and the gauges separtatly ---seemed to help some. Made sure the senders wires are isolated also.
I repeat I really like the gauges--cool looking and great value and with such a response from them--i think this can be worked out. Matter of fact I know it can.
I am at a track event this W/E--1st one since I have installed these. I know what my track temps are suppose to be there -- I will check them out and report. Its going to be HOT--forcast at over 95F
olddragger

 

My gauge is accurate.

 

ProSports are crap.
I spent 20 minutes at SEMA in their tiny booth, listening to the rep dance around the questions from 3 or 4 people that were complaining that their customers were having issues.

 

OD, we never heard from you about these results...any findings to disclose?