This is not the typical overheating problem. My car is running fine, thermo works, no coolant leaks anywhere, fan works, no steam, no boiling..nothing. Yet my temp guage is up waaaay past the hot mark. This happened on my way home from school today. Egt's are fine, there is lots of coolant in the radiator. Now this is where it gets weird. The car has been shut off for quite a few hours now, the engine is cold, but when i turn on the ignition, the temp needle shoots up in a split second ( it just shoots up QUICK!). What the hell is up here. Guage was reading perfect temp on my way to school today, engine is cold but needle is up past the hot mark?? :wary

Coolant Temp. Sensor?? :shrug

could it be? i drove it like 20miles like this to get home after i pulled over to inspect. Scares me to drive the car like this.

yeah its the sensor. Do you have a datalogger? What does the ECU's sensor see? Its two seperate ones for your ecu and the gauge sender one.

no datalogger here. How safe is it to drive it like this? At least to my local autozone to get the sensor.

well, i guess if it's the ECU sensor, i'd be having idle problems, must just be the guage sensor

ok guys, i replaced both coolant temp sensors, and the temp needle is still shooting up with the engine cold. WTF? :-(

gauge cluster maybe? Wiring? :shrug



Brian

ok, I'm basically trying to rule out this being something major. My car left me on the freeway tonight cuz the ignition moteur fuse blew due to the egr pipe melting the plastic wire casing, and the wire was touching the pipe causing a short on the fuse. Anywho, once i replaced the fuse and moved the wiring, I was able to start the car agin to get home, and it seemed the temp guage was working properly. The guage was reading ok, but once i almost got home, yet again it shot way up.

By the way your describing it, it could be a damaged or loose connector or wire.

i'll check the harness and look for damaged wires or connections, hopefully that's the reason, and nothing else.

i'm not positive, but the wire that goes for the coolant sensor for the gauge clutster, may run in that wire harness that was touching the EGR pipe. I would get into the harness right there, and inspect/repair any melted or damaged wires. The gauge cluster coolant sensor is the one wire sensor on the thermostat housing,the two wire one is the ECU coolant sensor. Be sure that one wire at the sensor is making good contact with the spade of the sensor, and that the wire isnt broken or shorting out.

xtremeRS, you always seem to be finding the solution to my problems. I would give you much more points if i hadn't rated you already. The harenss that I moved last night for my ignition fuse isn't the one that has the coolant wires on it, however, i noticed that the thicker harness where the coolant wires are cased at was ALSO touching the egr pipe. I removed it, and the guage works properly now..... and here i am wasting money on sensors..:wallbash thanks to all for the replies.

well, Chamuko gets credit too, he also mentioned it was a wire. hehe. :)

Wait, I said wiring too!




Brian

lol, indeed you did.

Woo hoo!! (like Homer)


:):)


Brian