Today I pulled into a parking lot after a short trip (not towing) and saw my X-monitor start throwing EGT alarms. It was reading 2211. After looking at it a little oscillating between 2211 and 2209 I decided the gauge must be wrong and shut down. Driving home it started off at 2211, then "cooled down" to 5-600 while driving. I stopped along the way and reset the connector between the thermocouple and the X-monitor unit and viola - temps are back down to 300's again.

So... I guess this strongly indicates a bad connection and/or failing sender? Right? There's no way I could have EGT's at 2200+ and not have the truck light other idiot lights (if 2200 is even possible?).

Just wanted to be sure I was not assuming the wrong thing. Oh yes, the manifold was not glowing red and the X-monitor is about 5 years old now and always worked great.

 

Check the wires and make sure they're not loose, grounding, etc...

Shawn

 

It's a ground. Undo and re do the connections, make sure that they are not corroded. Some sandpaper or a small wire brush will take care of it.

Could be the monitor itself, but usually it's the ground.

 

Most temperature units are designed with burn out protection. When the sensor or wiring breaks or has a high resistance, the unit reads high. They do this so that if you have a sensor fail it shuts the unit down instead of letting you believe everything's ok.

 

The temps have been normal ever since I reseated the connect to the thermocouple. As you all mentioned that was my guess too and looked like the problem. I just wanted to be sure that a symptom like that (eg real temp spikes for no reason) was not related to something real. THANKS.

 

Glad you got it fixed.