A bit of hard earned advice re. temp gauges

A long winded story not directly related to SC's but important none the less.......

A few cars back I had a small leak in one of those plastic radiator caps.....say every month or so the expansion tank would be empty and cause the light to come on....no biggie, it was a character trait of the car.

So , on the return from a trip down to Sydney ( 900km round trip ), low radiator light comes on, no problem, been about a month since I filled the expansion tank and being 60kms from home , i'll just keep an eye on the temp gauge.....all good, 50km from home start losing power up a hill....hmmmm that 's funny, temp gauge is fine, no other idiot lights on, no noises or smells, so push foot down a little harder, turbo boosts a little more, go over hill......all seems well for another couple of kays, just seems to need more juice...thinking maybe a blocked fuel filter, injector died, lead failed ???

Then.....smoke out the exhaust , all dash lights on, no power steer, and I look at the temp gauge and it has started to drop. WTF? ....... Seized engine!

What had happened is that the heater hose had let go, which I had taken to be the monthly refill due, thus all water from the car was expelled, causing terminal engine failure. The temp gauge only works by the temperature of the water passing past it ( and no doubt to some extent by the metal around it also )

Basically, Don't be fooled into a false sense of security by your temp gauge. If its going down, you've got problems, if its going up ( too high ), you've got problems, and if it doesn't move, then you probably own a mid 90's Toyota SC or Surf with an inaccurate gauge''

That story has encouraged me to get on with fitting the water pressure gauge to my SC.