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It has been the case, as long as I've been paying attention, that when my Zetec is up to normal operating temperature, the temperature gauge is straight up, between R and M, and the OBD?II ECT reading is around 190 to 195 degrees F. On my way to work this morning, I noticed that the gauge is barely making it up to N, but the OBD?II reading is still in the 190s. Obviously, the ECT sensor is working fine, but something is wrong with the gauge, or something leading to it. What should I be looking for?
Is it possible that I correctly remember hearing/reading somewhere that there are actually two coolant temperature sensors, that one feeds the gauge on dashboard, while the other feeds the PCM (which would be the reading I get via OBD?II)? Looking under the hood, I was able to find one apparent ECT sensor. If there's a second one, where would it be? I suppose something I should try is doconnecting the one ECT sensor that I've found, and then looking to see if both, or only one of the two readings (the dashboard gauge and the OBD?II ECT reading) are affected.
{I do hate spam, but that isn't really part of my email address. Remove the string ?HatesSpam? from the email address ?BobHatesSpam@blaylock.to? to email me. No advertisements. Spammers will be dealt with very harshly!} ------- Moonlight Blue 1996 Mercury Mystique GS , Zetec engine, ATX. No mods. (Well, OK, one mod. Before I got rid of my previous car, a 1994 Tempo, I swapped radios. I liked the Tempo's radio better. That counts as a mod, doesn't it? I also kept one of my Tempo's wheels to use as a spare. I hate those stupid ?compact? spares that come with modern cars. Does this count as a mod? If so, I guess I have two mods. Replaced burned/melted blower switch and connector on 19 February 2002 with a 1P3T toggle switch from Marvac and a Molex connector from Rat Shack; I guess this now makes three mods.)
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Joined: Jul 2000
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Yes, there are two sensors...the one for the dash only has one wire connected to it, the connector for which which may well be corroded a bit, increasing the circuit resistance and making the guage read low.
Solution is to clean the connector and apply some
terminal grease.
Brian
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qaz wrote: Yes, there are two sensors...the one for the dash only has one wire connected to it, the connector for which which may well be corroded a bit, increasing the circuit resistance and making the guage read low.
Solution is to clean the connector and apply some terminal grease. Anything useful you can tell me about the location of the sensor for the dashboard? I'm fairly sure that the sensor I found earlier had two or more wires, so it must be the one that feeds the PCM.
{I do hate spam, but that isn't really part of my email address. Remove the string ?HatesSpam? from the email address ?BobHatesSpam@blaylock.to? to email me. No advertisements. Spammers will be dealt with very harshly!} ------- Moonlight Blue 1996 Mercury Mystique GS , Zetec engine, ATX. No mods. (Well, OK, one mod. Before I got rid of my previous car, a 1994 Tempo, I swapped radios. I liked the Tempo's radio better. That counts as a mod, doesn't it? I also kept one of my Tempo's wheels to use as a spare. I hate those stupid ?compact? spares that come with modern cars. Does this count as a mod? If so, I guess I have two mods. Replaced burned/melted blower switch and connector on 19 February 2002 with a 1P3T toggle switch from Marvac and a Molex connector from Rat Shack; I guess this now makes three mods.)
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I can check when I get home where it is located in the EVTM (I have a V6, so although I could tell you where that one is right now, that wouldn't help you)
Brian
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The sensor for the Zetec does have two wires connected to it (the one for the Duratec doesn't).
In the '95 model they were white/red and black/blue.
Looks like it's located to the right of the dipstick, in the same general area as the one for the powertrain control module.
Brian
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qaz wrote: The sensor for the Zetec does have two wires connected to it (the one for the Duratec doesn't).
In the '95 model they were white/red and black/blue.
Looks like it's located to the right of the dipstick, in the same general area as the one for the powertrain control module. I just checked my official Ford service manual, and my Haines manual. The Ford manual, suprisingly, was no help at all, but the Haines manual indicated that it was in a location rather different from your description. Perhaps that's something that changed between the 1995 and 1996 models. Anyway, whoever decided to put it there must have been some kind of major a$$hole. I had to disconnect one of the cooling hoses to get at it, and there still wasn't enough room to do anything comfortably. I was able to work the connector off, but coolant dripped into it. I ended up spraying some WD-40 into it, followed by a few blasts of canned air, and then put it back on. Alas, none of this seems to have helped. Perhaps the sensor itself is going bad. Looks like I'll have to spend a weekend, some time soon, replacing it.
{I do hate spam, but that isn't really part of my email address. Remove the string ?HatesSpam? from the email address ?BobHatesSpam@blaylock.to? to email me. No advertisements. Spammers will be dealt with very harshly!} ------- Moonlight Blue 1996 Mercury Mystique GS , Zetec engine, ATX. No mods. (Well, OK, one mod. Before I got rid of my previous car, a 1994 Tempo, I swapped radios. I liked the Tempo's radio better. That counts as a mod, doesn't it? I also kept one of my Tempo's wheels to use as a spare. I hate those stupid ?compact? spares that come with modern cars. Does this count as a mod? If so, I guess I have two mods. Replaced burned/melted blower switch and connector on 19 February 2002 with a 1P3T toggle switch from Marvac and a Molex connector from Rat Shack; I guess this now makes three mods.)
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