88 festiva coolant gauge stays on c

[Cory_Thurmond]

I am trying to replace my coolant temp sensor to see if it is bad or just running cold.

Just bought the car.
The sensor I found is a single prong and the new one is a two prong

And I can't locate any thing on the block that looks to be another sensor for coolant.

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[Cory_Thurmond]

The believe I have found coolant fan switch in the above pics , is the temp switch under the intake manifold on firewall side ?

[william]

The sensor in the pictures is for the fan not the Gauge.
That one's a small sensor on the head above the exhaust manifold, It has a round connector.
The one you bought goes in the intake manifold and is used by the ecu.

[Cory_Thurmond]

Cool , thanks

Jacked up from driver side ( I'd say go from passenger side). Supported with Jack stand

a drain pan
19 mm flex head ratchet wrench or deep well socket with 12-18 inch of extention

Had new senor in my free hand to swap faster.

Took maybe 6 minutes.



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[Cory_Thurmond]

Now does the one I replaced control the Guage or just the ecu ?

[tooldude]

ecu.

[Cory_Thurmond]

Ight so where is the gauge sensor there's one next to fan switch from first pictures post that had a yellow wire.

[Cory_Thurmond]

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[dalebwilson]

The yellow single wire connector in above picture is the for the temp gauge on the instrument cluster. The single green wire connector in the thermostat housing controls the engine cooling fan.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Cory_Thurmond]

Cool , I got the part waiting for car to cool before I swap it.

Found two 155/80/12s at the first tire shop I tried as well. I was amazed lol

[Damkid]

If I would have seen this sooner I would have responded

The temp gauge sensor is basically a resistor that changes with heat

Cold = no continuity and the gauge sits at the bottom

The hotter the sender gets, the less resistance it has which makes the temp gauge rise

If you fully ground out the temp gauge wire, the heat gauge will climb to the max

Hope this helps you diagnose the issue

[Cory_Thurmond]

Well just went to take off the old temp gauge sensor and it broke off in the block

[Cory_Thurmond]

Guess I'll have to take it to a shop to get that extracted from it. Just my luck

[Cory_Thurmond]

Did get my bumpers painted and stole a light bar off my parts shelf for my race jeep build

[Cory_Thurmond]