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Temp gauge wiring

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UmmScott

CEG'er
Joined
May 4, 2009
Messages
292
Location
Omaha, NE
Hey all, a while ago i replaced my temp sender for the gauge. In doing so i broke the harness to it (my bad). I put the new one in and got a short new connector and spliced the wires.

Only problem: shortly after turning the ignition on, the gauge goes all the way to the hot side.

Does the order of the wires matter? (aka: could i have reversed them when i spliced them?)

maybe they gave me the wrong sender?...
 
Yes , it does matter. I believe one wire is - and one is +. It is pretty weird that it goes all the way to hot. I've fixed the temp. harness last week and I had the wires switched up. My temp. gauge was sitting really low below the cold mark and would not go up at all.
Try changing the wires than give it a try. You have to tear up the plastic insulation which covers both wires (all the way into the bigger harness)to really know what is going on. The wires could be touching somewhere therefore creating a short.(this could explain why your gauge is all the way to hot)

Best thing to do is to install a Autometer hose adapter(I installed it in the upper rad.hose) with an aftermarket temp. gauge which will give you a better idea of where you are running. Here it is: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Auto...918QQptZOtherQ5fVehicleQ5fParts#ht_2141wt_935

Size is 1-1/4"

Good luck
 
thats what i thought. I'll try switching the wires first and see if that fixes it. Cuz my gauge did work correctly before i replaced the sender. (I broke the old one... one of those oh sh*t moments..:laugh:)

Im really uncomfortable with my temp gauge not working. Just makes me uneasy with this car
 
That's one thing but make sure that your fan switch(one on top of coolant housing) is working. Also if you pull your fan out for any reason it is a good idea to replace the resistor which controls the low speed fan setting.Can be found at the dealer pretty cheap . My fan was not turning on because of a poor resistor and a short in the fan switch wire. Costed me an engine rebuild from overheating! Check your temperature sensor and fan switch harness really well and make sure the 2 wires are not touching at the connector. This is a common issue on the Contours because the insulation strips off the wires resulting in all sorts of weird problems.

I got a little anal and slapped a small ziptie between the wires at the connector(this will hold the wire insulation together and in the event that if it does come off , the wires will not touch and short. Then I slapped on some liquid tape along with some heat-shrink and some tape.
 
Yes, my car's wiring is absolutely horrible. My dad's 1970 buick gransport has better wiring than this and its like 20 years older than my car
 
With any gauge, the polarity of the wires does matter.
Basically the gauge is a voltmeter, the more voltage is drops, the higher the reading. The temparature gauge is controlled by a sensor which is a thermostatically controlled resistor.

All gauges work the same, the onlt real question is - what gives it it's input.

When you reverse those wires, I can pretty much bet the gauge will work fine again. I mean if it goes all the way hot, then it IS getting power.
 
Ok, i got it. Its kinda one of those things that i have to do, but i really really don't wanna go outside and fool with it right now. But I will do it....sometime...lol

(i think i like the new look of the forums, just gotta get used to it.)
 
UmmScott said:
Ok, i got it. Its kinda one of those things that i have to do, but i really really don't wanna go outside and fool with it right now. But I will do it....sometime...lol

(i think i like the new look of the forums, just gotta get used to it.)
Click to expand...

Oh come on! Is it because of the cold or what? Cut , splice and crimp.You could be back in the house in 5 min. You can do the heatshrink and other stuff later. I'm out every single day working on my car and just barely slowing down. It's been crazy with this rebuild.All I can say is that I'd rather be a little cold then sweat my ass of . No pain no gain I guess.
 
i agree. Its just been throwing so many problems at me lately im just kinda gettin tired of it. But at 140+k miles i guess it would be normal for a 1995 car to start going thru parts
 
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