Picture of temp gauge , Austin Mini

Picture of a temp gauge from my mini. Currently operating but at below normal temps. Grounding out the wire shows Hot as it is supposed to. It is currently wired to the voltage stabilizer, but maybe it needs a full 12 volts?
Mixed heritage mini. Who knows what year the gauge is, picture attached.

jerry

Jerry, your picture shows the rounded bezel of the Mk2 and later gauges so it will need the stabilizer. (Assuming the bezel has not been swapped). You can confirm the gauge type by looking at the back of your gauge and comparing it with those shown in the two links below.

The link below is to Barney Gaylord's MGA Guru web site. The pages show a fuel gauge. Regardless, if the back of your temperature gauge looks like the back of the ones on the MGA site, it's an early gauge that does not use the stabilizer.
https://mgaguru.com/mgtech/electric/fg_01.htm

If the back of your gauge looks like those shown in the link below... it's a later gauge that needs the stabilizer. The link below also discusses how to calibrate the later thermal gauges.
https://www.mgb-stuff.org.uk/fuel.htm

If the fuel gauge is working properly then the voltage stabilizer is not at fault. If both gauges are reading low, your stabilizer may be at fault.

If the fuel gauge is working OK what may be going on is a mismatch between the sending unit and gauge. I cannot help you sort that out. There were supposedly several different senders available over the years and only a handful are still in production. I don't know of anyone who can tell you which sender works with which gauge. So... what you may want to do once you confirm the gauge type is follow one of the two links above which will guide you through calibration which will allow you to match the gauge and sender.

You could also be dealing with a stuck open thermostat. Easy to check and eliminate as a source of the problem.


I always run the hottest ones I can find. Gets the engine up to temp quicker.