Saw this scary little bugger come on today... came on during a little 145mph blat... went off after about 20 seconds of gentle cruising
the water temp gauge never got up near 'hot' it was only a bit over halfway. have had the gauge up further before and the warning hasn't come on.

Something wrong with the warning light? the water temp gauge? the cooling system?
I think it's definately time to invest in an oil temp gauge...

 

well the stock guages are know to be basically worthless having three readings: cool warm and toasted engine

The warning lights are probably suffering from the cold solder joints.

 

are you talking about the heat warning light in the idiot/warning lights???

if so, that is for the exhaust temp, not water temp.

If it is the light in the water temp gauge (found only on some models), that is related to the cooling fan operation, and only comes on when the fan is not working, but it should be.

 

why would there be an exhaust temp light? what would happen if the exhaust over heats? melting??

 

nah, burns out the cats and becomes a fire hazard if you park over something.

 

i wonder if thats why the rear of my car has a nice burnt hole near the right left rotting muffler.... got the NA for cheap.

 

once again, cheers Mark
Is there likely to be some problem with my exhaust, or will it just do that? I'd been giving it some revs in 4th for a while, then gave it probably 15 seconds at full throttle...

have recently had a larger dump pipe and hi-flo cat fitted, but the zorst is still reasonably restrictive, I assume, based on it's quietness...

 

Might be running too rich and the cat can't keep up or the cat isn't designed to work with a rotary engine (they have to be high heat capable).

 

Problems with the secondary air injection system (i.e. air pump, ACV, split air pipe) will cause exhaust overheating too. Running the stock cat with this system removed definitely does. I know this from experience...