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Water Temp gauge not working...

A

aircougar

Veteran CEG'er
Joined
Jan 24, 2005
Messages
587
Location
Chicopee, MA
The stock gauge is not working at all...it remains all the way to the left after starting car, and it stays that way...

Is my Coolant temp sensor bad, the coolant gauge sender bad, or is there a fuse that controls the gauge that is blown???

Any help would be great! Thanks!
 
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i have heard of that happening when the water pump gose out. if your car dose not blow heat out of the vent its your water pump
 
SVTJON87 said:
i have heard of that happening when the water pump gose out. if your car dose not blow heat out of the vent its your water pump
Click to expand...


not quite ... if the waterpump went the gage would read in the red as there would be no coolant flow


but with that being said I would check to see if you are getting heat then I would chek the temp sensor
 
Locate the sender. Unplug it. Now, short the wire lead to ground and observe the guage. With the ignition switch in RUN, the guage should be pegged in the HOT direction. Unground the lead, the meter should be at rest it the COLD position.

If the needle acted properly, the sending unit is bad.

If the needle did not respond, the guage is defective or there is an open circuit in the wiring.

Steve
 
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Good test procedure, just disconnect the jumper before it really pegs hot to avoid a stuck gauge.:)
 
My gauge stuck at past the red, when the engine overheated, shorting the sender for the previous owner. They must have driven a while like that.
 
Thank you very much for the help! I will try that tomorrow...I am almost positive that the sender is bad...

And I had just read that same procedure in the Haynes manual as well!! :)
 
The one that controls the gage is on the bottom of the thermostat housing. Look over to the left of the housing towards the bottom. The one on top is the ECT sender. Replace the bottom one.
 
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