hi, bricknuts! You know, I was thinking the other day how I could guage my engine temperature without having an accurate--much less functioning--temp. guage. I think it's the TC board having a broken solder or something. The guage has never worked since I got the car, well, I think somedays it acts as if it works. I've never bothered to fix it or get a new one. I know getting at it can be a pain in the arse because I've tried dismantling the dash on my old '83 245 before it was sent to the parts yard after an accident. getting the nuts out was easy; the hard part was trying to get the instrument unit out far enough to actually be able to look behind it and do anything there. anyhow, I was thinking if it would work if I used one of those car temperature gadgets that have a wired sensor to read the outside ambient temp. instead of placing the sensor outside the car (like underneath the front bumper), I was wondering what if I placed it somewhere inside the engine bay to read the ambient temp. from the engine. I know I will probably not get a true engine temp reading, but whether if it reads very high or very low, as long as the numbers are consistent, I can at least know where the safe zone is. does this sound like it's a good, viable idea?