Triumphrat

05-23-2005, 12:03 AM

Ihave recently found a wonderful 2001 T-Bird for sale and I would love to buy it, but the temp light seems to come on alot. The current owner told me this was a common problem, is that so? Please let me know thanks Mike.

jp99tbirdnm · 05-23-2005, 12:32 AM

Had mine four years and have never had the temp light come on even in 100+ temps.

Jerry :???:

johnyC · 05-23-2005, 05:46 AM

No, me neither. I've only had the fan kick in sometimes. However, I changed the oil pressure switch on my '98 TBS twice. It would develop a short due to ingress of rain water which gave spurious 'low oil pressure' indications. My point is that Triumph fit crappy switches so I would change your high temp' switch out before worrying too much.

Slinky · 05-23-2005, 06:30 AM

There is a known problem with some T-birds, I have not had it so am not entirely clear what the problem is.

I think it is something to do with an insuffiicient earth (ground) connection) in the headlamp. I recall that the fix is to run an additional earth to the frame.

IIRC the indicators will cause the temp light to flash if this is the problem.

cafetbird · 05-23-2005, 07:41 AM

Would confirm that there is a probelm on some bikes with the temp light. It comes from insufficient ground on the wire harness. The bike is not actually overheating. There is a fix - a service bulletin out there explains how to add an extra ground that eliminates the problem.

fbird · 05-23-2005, 07:42 AM

Slinky is right, its probably a bad ground. Look in the headlight housing. You can probably find some info if you use the search function on the forum. Good luck!

05-24-2005, 12:48 AM

I had the same problem on my T-Bird. As has already been mentioned, the bike was not overheating, the light just wanted to come on. I took it into my dealer and there is a service memo (or what ever they call it) out on the problem. It is a ground problem. They simply provided an additional ground and the problem was solved.

05-24-2005, 01:25 PM

If you go to the downloads section there is a Temperature light service bulletin that explains exactly what needs to be done.

zimtok · 05-24-2005, 03:03 PM

My temp light would come on just before the fan would kick in. I heard that the light sensor and fan sensor were really closely set and this was common.
I did also hear about the ground problem so the next time I had my tank removed I installed a ground wire from the battery to the point on the frame where the ground wires attached. I haven't noticed the light coming on so far and that was over a year ago.

[ This message was edited by: zimtok on 2005-05-24 13:04 ]

05-28-2005, 05:00 PM

Howdy!

I also had my fair share of british electrical engineering... :wink: as my temp light also started to flicker. Certainly a case of bad grounding. I was about to perform the fix and make a better ground, but felt too lazy. It didn't flicker before, so what's changed from "then" to "now"? Bikes live in a harsh environment, and electrical connections and stuff tend to corrode. I went under the saddle, and cleaned up the battery ground terminal with a brush and some serious contact cleaner, put things back, then tightened the screw really well. Done! No problems. The light stays off.
Obviously, facts remain; the grounding is a weak point, and from the very beginning a little close to the edge. I guess it's a good thing to make that fix anyway, but not now. I want to spend every minute possible riding, not tinkering. I'll save that for next looong dark cold and miserable winter...

My oil-lamp went on too the other day. Scary at first, but it turned out to be the same basic problem; a corroded connector. Is she trying to tell me something? Like "get me a garage, you lazy s.o.b!"