# engine coolant temperature sensor



## 200sxOuTKasT (Feb 24, 2003)

I think my temperature sensor is failing. My car "overheats" and the needle shoots to the H in about 15 minutes of driving, I pull the car over and turn the car off then turn it right back to the "on" position and my temperature gauge will be right in the normal operating temperature again (sometimes a little higher but still nowhere near the H). Is this a good sign its broken? 

Also, if it is, I don't know where the sensor is. I believe its one of the two plug type things near the air bleeder valve connected to the upper radiator hose but I'm not sure which? Left one or right one? If no one understands what I'm saying, I'll post a picture tomorrow. Anyone else have any idea what this could be? I just replaced my radiator with a Koyo performance radiator, brand new waterpump to replace the leaky old one, and a new thermostat (installed correctly, I double checked cause I thought that was the problem) and new hoses. My heater core works perfectly (hot air flows through, coolant doesn't go inside etc) and my headgasket isn't fucked quite yet (mechanics ran so many checks and my car wouldn't show a single symptom of a blown head gasket other than overheating after driving a bit).

Pretty much everything related to my cooling system replaced except for the coolant temperature sensor. My mechanic and I believe that the previous owner might have use stop-leak to prevent the waterpump leak and the radiator leak. But because I had the smart idea of using radiator flush, all that came out and pretty much is the cause of my cooling system problems now. If there is a clog in a cooling channel in my engine, how do I go about fixing that?


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## UP240SX (Aug 19, 2005)

This sounds like a problem I had when doing a coolant flush. You need to get the air bubbles out of the system. Did you bleed the system with that bleed screw after putting new coolant in? I'll look up in my service manual at home which is the sensor and what it should read with a multi-meter.


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## 200sxOuTKasT (Feb 24, 2003)

All the air is bled out, gonna reflush the system one more time today just to double check. But I'm thinking its the sensor cause no matter how close to the needle is to the H, whenever I turn the car off, and then on, the needle will go back to a normal operating temperature (a little under or over it). Would anyone be so kind enough as to test this out on their car just to let me know if its an old s13 thing or not? This happens to me even when my engine is at normal temperatures, when I turn it off and back on the needle will be a knotch under normal temperature. Though this is a rather old car and I wouldn't be suprised if that sensor resets itself after turning off.


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## rogoman (Dec 16, 2004)

200sxOuTKasT said:


> Also, if it is, I don't know where the sensor is. I believe its one of the two plug type things near the air bleeder valve connected to the upper radiator hose but I'm not sure which? Left one or right one?


The temperature sensor for the dash gauge is the one on the right side of the two when looking down at the motor. Also it's the smaller of the two sensors and has only one wire coming off the unit. The other temperature sensor is for the ECU.


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## 200sxOuTKasT (Feb 24, 2003)

Perfect, replaced my sensor for the gauge and now I don't "overheat" anymore; just have to find out why I'm misfiring now and where my vacuum leak is...sigh...


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## ittamaticstatic (Nov 5, 2003)

timing gun


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