Hi folks, My son just got his first car a fire engine red 1989 TP Wagon.
121k on the clock, one owner , basicly tidy, with a few of the usual problems, fuel gauge not working,
probably needs tank sender unit, headlining drooping, will leave that one to a trimmer, Radiator fan is permanently on, seems to have been jury rigged with an earth on the relay, I am looking for the temp sender??? where is it? we have a w/shop manual but not much use for finding the sensor.
Transmission changes well,o/d works ok. ECO/POWER SW seems to do nothing , how do you test it??
Any help appreciated
Thanks!

temp sender is on the passengerside inlet manifold

o/d on above 70 kmph
power on under 70 kph
econ on above 70 km ph

use only mitsubishi brand oil in the auto
service once a year

Thanks Magna Buff, I will locate sender, I didnt realise transmission oil was so critical, I will get some of the Mitsibushi trans oil,I presume we will need to run the fuel tank to nearly empty to change the sender unit as I believe it is side mounted?

Yes, you need to get under the car to find the fuel sender. You probably need to get the fuel level down to a quarter or so at a guess.

The thermo switch that works the fan is on the bottom tank of the radiator I believe, the one on the intake manifold works the temperature gauge on the dash.

I don't think red is an original colour for a TP wagon, would love to see some pictures!

Have a look around this forum, sagging headliner is not too difficult as a DIY job.

Have a look under the front of the car, and see if the 6 rubber boots (2 on steering rack, 4 on the 2 drive shafts) are still intact. Catch these early when they disintegrate/split, and its a lot cheaper to fix.

Check the coolant too, might be due for a change.

If its a carburettor model, check that the choke opens fully when the engine is hot.

Its a big, roomy car that rides well, bit heavy on petrol if its not EFI. Low Km ones are rare.

Eco/power switch - just controls how high the engine revs through the gears and how easily it kicks down when you bury the right foot, in normal driving you would not notice any difference. It's not a turbo switch or anything. lol

Thanks MadMax, I will go and stick my head underneath shortly and see what I can find, My neighbour is a car painter and he reckons tthe colour is original, I have put a photo up as an avatar but I dont know how to upload pics at the moment into a reply!
I have read a few DIY posts on Headlining but I am trying to cut down on cigarettes at the moment!!!

been a wagon the sender is uuder rear carpet next to the spare tyre. easy to get to .from memory its more likly to be the dash end playing up. love the first gen wagons more space then the bigger wagons.

been a wagon the sender is under rear carpet next to the spare tyre.

Is it? I was sure you had to crawl under the car. Oh well, I'm sure he will find it. lol

sadens are under the car wagon left hand side in the back.that where jay was lucky the right speaker caught fire .

Nice Avatar picture! Definitely red! If its original, its very rare indeed! What is the paint code under the bonnet - on compliance/ VIN plate?

the bolt under the tank is not a drain
it holds the fuel pump in place

for a wagon will find the sender under a metal plate
with 3 screws the fuel pump is also there

under neath the macsenite floor
under the carpet inside the car (passengerside rear)

Paint code is UG then there is DUL 351/6 if that tells you anything? I am curious now, maybe it was a special order?

the bolt under the tank is not a drain
it holds the fuel sender in place

for a wagon will find the sender under a metal plate
with 3 screws the fuel pump is also there

under neath the macsenite floor
under the carpet inside the car (passengerside rear)

Thanks I will have a look for it

Yes, I forgot about that bolt in the bottom of the tank. Does that mean the tank needs to be empty, and you need a clean container to catch the fuel that leaks out when you remove this bolt?

The paint codes says it cherry red :D

doug is right on both points. very lucky it was the right speaker that caught fire and the fuel sender is totally removable from the top. you dont need to loosen anything from the bottom. you may need to with the pump but defiantly not the sender. but as he says its much more likely to be the dash. one of two things happens, a the fuel sender contact nuts come lose, or b. the power regulator (green transistor type thing on the back, turns 12 volts into seven) goes bad. but in the case of the regulator you dont have temp gauge either.

ide pull the dash out and inspect the connections for the fuel gauge and the traces that lead to it for splits, wear, corrosion ect. the gauge wire its self can also break.

if the dash appears fine then take the sender out (you have to tilt it in wired directions to get it out, also mark its position before you remove it) . inspect the resistance wire for breaks and the connections for corrosion. also make sure the earth to the unit is good. then if it still doesn't work test the resistance of the wire leading from the tank to the dash.

i have two manual dashes (exactly compatible accept the manual dosnt have the transmission selector lights) if need be.

transmission modes dont make a terrible difference but the power insicator should light on the dash if its switching. only holds out the changes a little longer. still means they try and go around corners in overdrive lol.

as to the thermo fans ill consult the factory manual i have at home and copy you the wiring diagram to make it easy. i presume its eci?

they are a great car by the way. mine did 500k's of trouble free motoring (aside from a small fire but not the cars fault) yesterday and didnt use much more then half a tank. i cant understand how its so economical but mines a manual and it was mostly free way cruzing mind you.

hope this helps,
regards jay

p.s. the first gen sedans, 2ng gen sedans and wagons require half a tank of fuel to remove the sender / pump. 1st gens you can remove both with a full tank.

lol:DThanks OM , TEMP gauge and rest of dash are working fine, there is about 2mls of movement on fuel gauge, I was thinking of taking wire off sender unit and putting a small resistor in and seeing if I get a measurement on gauge.

thanks sparky for confirming car is red!!

thanks sparky for confirming car is red!!


Not only is it red, it ALWAYS has been red. That makes it a very unique TP, first red one I've come across.

Wow! my son did do well! His first car and it is unique! Thanks MM for pointing it out!

if you completely earth out the wire it should go to full. then you will know. you dont need to remove the sender to do that. the fuel gauge is yellow-white wire from memory and fuel lams is yellow-light blue. same story, earth it and it should come on.

ill scan the thermo fan diagram for you tomorrow. what line is it? executive by the look? is it injected or carby?

It is an EFI Executive July 1989
Another question - when idling in P or N it is very smooth, if idling in D (while at intersection) there is some vibration, the trans changes OK, so could it be an engine mount or trans mount?

It will be engine mounts that cause vibration.

check idile speed aswell.

p.s. the first gen sedans, 2ng gen sedans and wagons require half a tank of fuel to remove the sender / pump. 1st gens you can remove both with a full tank.

What's this?

By the way, nice purchase for your son Jayone.
Vibration I would definitely put as engine mounts, those things are like cheese.
Front and rear cross members most likely.
If you can, get a solid for the rear as it will help a tonne, and also mean it will last a whole lot longer.

edit: also don't think your pwr/ eco switch question was answered.
There will be a light that comes on when PWR is selected, this will also make the gears hold out slightly longer, around 500rpm between changes, frankly rather useless.
As for oil I've had my auto run the castrol equivalent with zero hassle, a lot of people have had hassles, perhaps I've been lucky.. twice, but I never found the autos to be problematic.

Originally Posted by old magna
p.s. the first gen sedans, 2ng gen sedans and wagons require half a tank of fuel to remove the sender / pump. 1st gens you can remove both with a full tank.
What's this?

what i ment was you can remove both the sender and pump with a full tank from a 1st gen wagon. sedan you still need half a tank. sorry i could have made it clearer.

and i agree they are good boxes...until you thrash it. mine was dead in a few months of harsh driving. so ide stress the point of conservative driving. i stuck a manual in mine and its a world different but the auto is good for normal driving. i miss it until i plant it and take off better then a crappydoor!
other thing that make i superior is a holden with a p-plate is a cop magnet. a manga is a granny's car... supposedly.

as the the vibration i have a full service history of the previous motor and box and it was first listed as a precautionary warning on a rwc in 1992. so it made it another 19 years before it gave up. but they are annoying. i use to throw it into neutral at the lights. cleaning up all the vaccume leaks and stuf helps but really its just annoying, not much of a problem ide say. i got decent mounts for $5 from the wreckers. didnt fix it but made it a little more bearable

Thanks guys, Very annoyingly the petrol gauge has currently fixed itself,may have been a loose wire so I will have to try and replicate the fault to fix it permanently, seemed to come right after I was tidying up in the spare wheel well area.
My local mechanics are a bit busy at the moment ,but later in the week we will put it up on the hoist and have a poke around and check everything out,, they commented there was a slight timing chain rattle which they said was easy to adjust.Will check engine mounts at sametime.They agree with the earlier comment that the OD should be off around town.
I havent had a lot of time to check it out as my son keeps wanting to drive it ! funny that!!!!

Definitely can't have any fuel what so ever in a wagon if you remove the fuel pump. Sender unit you can.
Bolt at the bottom of the tank and fuel will come out from there, when pump is removed.

My auto has seen some damn hard abuse, nothing like redlining in neutral and shifting to D, but has seen a lot of abuse and still runs like new.
Regular services, maintenance, etc no issues.
Reason I went manual is turbo front cut had a manual box with the works attached... and I prefer manual.

Re: the gauge cluster, the way these get power is a flexible pc board with nuts and washers holding on the gauge pieces for power/ signal feed.
If these come loose then they intermittently or do not function at all.
Get an 8mm (i think) socket piece and tighten them up, DO NOT apply extensive force you will damage the pc board, but enough force to ensure they will not move. could also apply a small bit of silicon on the end of the caps for security provided it will not eat the plastic.

Also note that there is a 7v regulator on the rear of the cluster that were prone to fail after year in the sun/ heat. (the silver piece which sticks out secured by 2 screws and a plastic cover piece on the feet)
The way you know that has blown is both your engine temp and fuel level gauages will die. You can use an equivalent Jaycar replacement reg, though it is not 7v, does the same job. (then again, it may be a 5v reg, and the replacement is 7v) do a search, there's a thread in here somewhere from a couple of years back.


While you are at all this, I may suggest you remove the plastic cover pieces beneath the front windscreen and clean out the rain gutter.
One BIG issue with these cars which I've seen a lot, and sadly have in both of mine is a rusted passenger side (occasionally drivers side) end channel.
Water pools in a corner and if there is crud in there will eat away at the metal.
If you notice under the carpets are getting wet, and no visible sign at all of water coming between the door rubbers, door trim pieces, or front windscreen seal, then get to a body shop asap and have them cut out the bad metal and replace. (remove fender job)
Sadly my sedans became so bad it is no longer worth saving.

just a gentle reminder for Old Magna about wiring diagram for rad fan. I have found temp sender at bottom of radiator,i need to trace it out.
Are the relays in the box interchangeable for test purposes?

sorry mate i have the manual on the page in front of me just haven't got the scanning part lol. i scanned the one with a/c but if yours dosnt have it it will be virtually the same. if not ill scan the other.

http://i675.photobucket.com/albums/vv115/jay_p_a/radfan001.jpg

as long as the relays are both the same ie both normally open (N/O) then yes. may have different load ratings but will be fine for testing.

other thing is that although the scan is clear as a bell when uploaded to photobucket it reduces the size and thus is not easily readable so if you need a clearer version PM me you email and ill shoot you a copy. along with a wire color decoder if need be. although its simple enough.

Thanks OM , I have a diagram in the Gregorys but it is very basic and vague, this is much better. It seems a very complex way of switching a fan on , I am surprised they use a relay it is not like the fan is drawing a huge current anyway I will make sure it is wired correctly.

OK good news is fuel gauge is now fixed thanks to a few clues from Magna Man and Old Magna.
I lifted masonite floor in cargo area and unscrewed plate over tank, disconnected plug on sender unit and earthed bl/w wire and fuel gauge went fullscale.Unsrewed and withdrew sender unit and temporarily blocked hole into tank with large plastic bag,then moved float through arc and gauge worked fine.Unclipped brass float and shook it, it was full of fuel,located pin hole ,enlarged it and drained fuel out,soldered up hole and replaced float,then reinstalled sender unit and put everything back together and hey presto we have a working fuel gauge.
next job is to fix the rad fan, I am hoping it is a relay, are they easy to buy and abot how much?

Have now fixed radiator fan.Tested relay and it was was ok, put earth on sender wire and fan did not go, poked around and found an earth wire from fan that was not connected to radiator mounting bolt, pulled out bolt with great difficulty and connected on earth, ran engine until med hot and it switched on! Fan looks new so must have been replaced recently and they missed the earth wire and jury rigged the relay instead!
I have ordered a central locking kit and alarm kit today so that should be a couple of days work to install that.

Next thing to sort out is airconditioning which is not working.
When I press the A/C SW nothing happens, no light, no comp,nothing! I will have to trace it out with OM's wiring diagram.
There is supposed to be an inline fuse somewhere.

AC has a low/high pressure switch in the circuit, if the pressure is too low it won't cut in. It probably needs a dose of refrigerant. Get a car AC shop to check it out.

You could locate and short out the switch, then see if the AC compressor clutch engages when you operate the switch. Do this with the ignition on but the engine not running, if the pressure is low and you run it, the compressor will not be lubricated and suffer damage.

the fuse is on the left hand side of the glove box. its a 5 amp fuse in a double fuse holder. mine i had to rig onto the fan with a diode for it to work. but did the trick for a few months. just what ever you do don't bypass the pressure switches.

but first check if there is continuity through the low and hight pressure switches because as mad max said it could be low.

I am glad to say the airconditioning is working fine , we had a hot day to day and I tried it out and nearly froze my nuts off!
The problem was, ahem(cough cough) I wasnt switching it on right, it appears you have to switch the blower fan on at least one position before the AC switch works, my fault!
Good news is central locking with remotes and alarm kit arrived today,checked the loom against the wiring diagram and it all looks good,will start on saturday,there is a dinky little alarm horn,only mounting position would appear to be engine side of firewall near brake booster.

Had headlining done today, brandnew Mitsubishi Magna material,took him three and half hours, he fully soundproofed all the roof and the finished job looks superb.Total cost $240 so I am glad I didnt attempt it myself.
I will be starting on the remote keyless central locking and alarm tomorrow.

keyless entry is easy on these things. plenty of places to mount the regulators and run wires. i adapted first and second gen regulators to fit mine then fitted key less entry. an bit adhoc but it works a treat!

one thing ill say is if its an alarm kit be careful because allot of them have an auto lock feature programmed in. very easy to lock keys in car!

i connected mine to the constant on the radio and tucked it in next to the glove box.

I spent a few hours sussing out the job with the help of Cheyennes thread, I was able to get off drivers door trim, appears to be not much room for mounting the actuator, also not much room under kickboards for the control unit,I am going to have to leave it until I have more time and the weather is not so cold and wet.

keyless entry is easy on these things. plenty of places to mount the regulators and run wires. i adapted first and second gen regulators to fit mine then fitted key less entry. an bit adhoc but it works a treat!

one thing ill say is if its an alarm kit be careful because allot of them have an auto lock feature programmed in. very easy to lock keys in car!

i connected mine to the constant on the radio and tucked it in next to the glove box.

Thanks for the tip OM, I think I will start off by laying out the loom in the car and seeing how much flexibility there is in positioning the control unit and there is also a relay for a manual lock up SW in the car. I scored a factory service bulletin on Ebay which has about a 100 wiring diagrams in it which should be useful.

i mounted my control unit behind the centre console. under the dash.

ok, I am right into installing this central locking and alarm kit,I have mounted the control box behind the fuse panel as it seemed to suit the loom better,I am going to run all the cables in first under the carpets and through the grommets in the door pillars and then open up the front doors and fit the actuators and then do the back, question: where is the best place to tap the alarm into the indicator lights?perhaps back of the Hazard switch?

i can't think of a better place. thats where i joined mine.

Had a go in the weekend got the front doors done, as I had never pulled interior trim out of a Magna before it took a while, especially getting through the grommets,back doors should be easier but I ran out of time!

I have a crack in drivers power side mirror,I have been given another whole unit but casing is not as good as original,is it possible to replace the mirror and how do you get the glass out?

Another weekend has gone and I didnt get a chance to finish the central locking, but my son got himself a cd unit on ebay and we set about installing it, first car I have worked on where I had to pull out the whole console to get at the the radio. As usual it took longer than I thought.
Turns out the speakers are all good and it sounds great.My son is gradually getting his car the way he wants it!
He even managed to get a cd unit with orangy/red backlights which match the dash lights, so it looks good as well as sounds good.

Question re my sons car! The only thing that seems to spoil the interior (in my humble opinion) is the big wedge shaped gear shift for the auto trans, it sits there like a big slice of pizza, I know it houses the OD button, but does anyone know if it is possible to fit a more slim line elegant gear shift lever and maybe locate the OD button somewhere else?????????

Have now got the rear doors fitted with central locking which I found a lot harder than the front, it appears that the actuators have to push to lock,
where in the front they pull to lock! I found that if I well lubricated the rod mechanism it works fine.

I also found tightening the nuts on the back of the cluster where the fuel gauge terminals are made my gauge work again. If you tap the top of the cluster and the gauge works for a second, try tightening the nuts on the back.

Then again I should read the whole post before commenting!!

Thanks corndog,Yeah our problem was a sunken float in the tank easy fixed.
Finally got all central locking and alarm working properly, found there is a nipple on the speedo cable grommet which allowed a wire through the firewall from the hooter siren to the control unit.
The locks all work now on a remote with flashing indicators and chirping hooter, just like a modern car !!!!!!
still waiting if anyone out there has got a solution for replacing the auto shift lever with something smaller and slimmer , would a later model knob fit ? with a relocation of O/D switch to console.

Question re my sons car! The only thing that seems to spoil the interior (in my humble opinion) is the big wedge shaped gear shift for the auto trans, it sits there like a big slice of pizza, I know it houses the OD button, but does anyone know if it is possible to fit a more slim line elegant gear shift lever and maybe locate the OD button somewhere else?????????

2nd gen shifters fit with a small modificaion, and you get to keep the od on the shifter too, from memory the plug is different but solder your original one back on
They look a ton better too

Thank you very much Mad Lante', I will try and obtain a 2nd gen shifter., what is the small modification you mention ?