Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Duratec Maintenance IAT question

I have been having bad stumbling problems with my car, and I think I have narrowed it down to the IAT sensor. If the sensor was bad would it behave the same if it was unplugged?

I cleaned it and ran the car and it still stumbled, so I disconnected it and it ran the same. Would that indicate that it was a bad sensor.

No. The IAT is there for timing adjustments based on intake temperature. You would not notice a big difference unless you were at WOT.

It makes very little to no changes at low load. Well except in very cold weather it raises the timing to compensate for the poor fuel atomization.

Since disconnecting the sensor did not "fix" the problem, the sensor is not the cause of the problem.

When the computer recognizes that a sensor has gone "offline", it substitutes known default values for the missing sensor data so that the engine can still run.

This process works for a variety of sensors that are not vital to the engine's operation (such as the crank sensor which is mandatory).

Steve