Spurious "Ice" Light

[guyslp]

Hello All,

In the year that I've owned my 1978 Silver Shadow II, the
"Ice" light appears to have a mind of its own, and that mind is in
no way connected to the outdoor temperature (which is reading
approximately correctly on the dash thermometer).

Does anyone know of a reason why this thing is so flaky
and insists on warning me of "Ice" when the temperature is
*well* in excess of freezing?

Brian
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Brian
--
In theory there is no difference between theory and practice, in practice there is.
~ Unknown

[jimknopf]

Hi there!

Yes - there usually is a rather simple reason: the behaviour is due to "cold soldering points" of that clock/temperature unit. On my early Spur I had the same problem. I took the unit out, dismanteled it completely and resoldered the pins of the outside connector socket:








See the silver pins of the connector? The ground pin especially had kind of rotten solder arund it, so I resoldered all the pins thouroughly. After that, the unit worked out fine.


Greets, JimKnopf
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from Munich, Germany

[guyslp]

Jim,

I believe the Spur "went electronic" for this, but not the Shadow II.
In the Shadow II the clock is self-contained and the external temperature
thermometer is self-contained. I can see no circuit board (or haven't
yet, anyway) for them.

My VDO clock has been "wacky" ever since I bought the car. It will
not hold the correct time for any period.

The thermometer tends to read fairly close to accurately, but gets
pretty far off if the car sits outside in the sun for any period. I have yet
to determine where the outside temperature sensor is located.

I have the added joy of dealing with a RHD to LHD conversion, so
many things are not precisely where one might expect them.
_________________
Brian
--
In theory there is no difference between theory and practice, in practice there is.
~ Unknown

[jimknopf]

Hi Bill!

The late Shadows have almost the same dash as the early Spirits and Spurs. So I figured your cars' clock/outside temp gauge looks like the one on the pictures. Obviously you need to keep looking ..... :-)

I also was told that sometimes the temp sensor (Spurs have it hidden under the left?(or right) end of the front bumper) very often have corroded cable ball joint connectors. Maybe anti corrosion spray helps a little?


Regards JimKnopf
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from Munich, Germany

[Rollsroycru]

Hello, on my 1980 Silver Shadow II the ICE warning indicator works perfectly, it switch on when temperature is around 1degrees C.,
I tested personally the thermometer and the ICE warning light. I fixed with some tape a thermometer outside the car and droven the Shadow for a number of kilometers.
The problem came when you still in the traffic and engine is hot.
The sensor is in fact fixed under the Spirit of Ecstacy and the warm air of the radiator disturb the sensor....
Surely a stupid location for a temperature sensor!
In the right side of the rear bumper is anyway installed a second air sensor, it detect outside temperature (much better than the other one) to help the automatic climate system.
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DOMINUS ILLUMINATIO MEA.