2001 Dodge Ram Temperature Gauge

TARABREE

MEMBER
2001 DODGE RAM

Interior problem
2001 Dodge Ram V8 Automatic 108 miles

Was driving down the road yesterday and my husband's truck's engine light and "check gauges" light came on out of nowhere and within 2 seconds the temperature gauge needle went all the way over to the red. No smoking, no smell, nothing else to indicate an overheated engine. Now when I start the truck it immediately jumps over to the red in two seconds.
My husband replaced the thermostat and it didn't help. Could it just be a bad gauge? I'm a woman but have done a lot of research about it online and am wondering could it be the TSU, or temperature sender unit?

3 Replies

JACOBANDNICKOLAS

MECHANIC
109,885 POSTS

Hi:
Yes the temp sending unit could be the problem. I would try replacing that to see if it fixes the problem. It is the sensor that sends the signal to the gauge.

Let me know if it helps.
Joe

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Thursday, March 12th, 2009 AT 5:11 PM

TARABREE

MEMBER
6 POSTS

Hi and thanks for the response. My husband is right as we speak working on it. It took a couple of days for the part to get in at the Dodge dealer for him to pick up. He drained the coolant yesterday and took the old one off and then when he went to put the new part in, it was discovered that the hole to put it back in to needed, and I don't remember the words he used exactly, but something about needing to be re-threaded so he got some kind of thing to do that today. He said he has to re-thread it, then put the new one in (hopefully it will go in after that). Then fill the coolant up again. Hopefully it will work then. But I'll let you know if it does or doesn't. I hope that's it! The part only cost $51 and some change - and with him doing it, it saved us the labor anyway. Will let you know! :-)