Discussion
Having used the Caterham to commute to work in the freezing cold I decided it was time to fit the heater that came with the car but had not been plumbed in. The job was finished in three hours and no air locks or leaks. I went out for a trial run with the hood off. Driving with warm feet and a cocoon of hot air was bliss until I noticed that the water temp' and oil pressure gauges were unreadable. Condensation had misted them up. Is there any way of venting them?
I tried cutting a slot in the dial casing using a Dremel cutting disk.
This worked fine, though to lower the risk of swarf getting in to the casing you could hold the dial above the cutting disk so the swarf falls away from the casing, or mount the Dremel vertically.
http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/9540/imag0053bc...
Just make sure you cut the slot far enough away from the edge of the dial so it is not covered by the dashboard metal itself.
http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/8113/imag0056bl...
The cutting disk was thick enough so I did not need to cut two slots and lever out the flap.
This worked fine, though to lower the risk of swarf getting in to the casing you could hold the dial above the cutting disk so the swarf falls away from the casing, or mount the Dremel vertically.
http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/9540/imag0053bc...
Just make sure you cut the slot far enough away from the edge of the dial so it is not covered by the dashboard metal itself.
http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/8113/imag0056bl...
The cutting disk was thick enough so I did not need to cut two slots and lever out the flap.
Not yet. I wanted to test out the idea first and the other gauges a pig to get out. The wiring is not long enough to pull the gauges far enough out to see the wiring connections. Looks like it is a job that requires you to be head down in the footwell with a torch! If there was enough length in the wires the slots could be cut with the dials just pulled clear of the dashboard.
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