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Hey guys. I did a search for coolant sensor and didn't exactly find any answers from the search so I decided to post. Here's my situation. Saturday night driving home, the engine light turned on. It turned off a minute later so I ignored it for now. Monday, drive to work, engine light turns on again, car begins to overheat a little. On the drive home, engine light on again, drive home overheats a lot this time, right near H. Can smell burnt antifreeze. Pop the hood, no coolant in the resevoir. Decide to take it in the next morning to dealership. Dealership tells me it's a leak in the waterpump and I need to replace it, replace the thermostat and flush and fill. Sounds like that would be the trouble so I get it fixed. I drive it to work the next day. It does not overheat anymore BUT it idles horribly, the exhaust is very loud and doesn't sound normal and the engine doesn't want to start on the first try. Engine light still comes on. Take it in the next day. Dealership does a diagnostic for engine codes. Nothing comes up but they say it's the coolant sensor. This is where I'm at right now. Is this really the problem??? They say it's safe to drive but not to drive it too much until Monday which is when they get the part. My car sounds like it has a bad loud sounding performance exhaust but it's stock. Anyone else have this problem? Does anyone know what the problem is? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!<p>[ January 03, 2003: Message edited by: Rich ]<p>[ January 03, 2003: Message edited by: Rich ]</p>

Pull your own codes. You can find out how in the v6 faq, could be your tps sensor or a vaccum leak as well, check the accordian thing before the throttle body, i have a constant coolant temp code, correction now i have both of them, my car wont start easy when cold so i ground the f/i pin the the diagnostic box and then it turns over nicely. Good luck. P/S its probably a code 9 they are talking about.

well if the coolant sensor is giving false readings, then the car won't go into closed loop and mpg may suffer. i have also seen hard starting due to a bad ect sensor, but never anything with loud exhaust.

Sounds like the timing belt could be off by a tooth. They should have suggested that you replace the timing belt while they were in there doing the water pump.
I don't think a faulty temp sensor could cause all the symtoms that you described, or for that matter any of them.
Andy P. 93 GS

I think Andy put his finger on it. When they changed the water pump, they could have put the timing belt back incorrectly. Fits all the symptoms.

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by andy:
Sounds like the timing belt could be off by a tooth. They should have suggested that you replace the timing belt while they were in there doing the water pump.
I don't think a faulty temp sensor could cause all the symtoms that you described, or for that matter any of them.
Andy P. 93 GS<hr></blockquote><p>Yeah, that's what they said. That it's possible that the timing belt need replacing but they said it wasn't necessary when they looked at it. So I'm guessing that I don't need that coolant sensor then right?

Unfortunatly your at there mercy. Because they did the original work to replace the water pump I would probably let them go ahead with there solution. It is very involved to replace a water pump so a lot of things can get screwed up. theres a crank angle sensor that could be messed up which would also wreak havoc on the ECU.
I thought you had to take the timing belt off to remove the water pump. Its been so long since I did mine I'm not 100% sure anymore. I do remember that getting all three timing marks aligned correctly when putting the new belt back on was a pain in the @$$.
Hopefuly while there in there replacing the temp sensor they will double check there previous work.
How many miles are on your car?
Andy P. 93 GS

Coolant temp sensors are 26 bucks at Autozone.
Im gonna go get one today on my lunch break, just to see if thats my problem too. Its time for a flush, so I'll get it while im there.

I picked one up on lunch, I may try and change it tonight if I get time. I'll tell u if my issue is resolved.

<blockquote><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by andy:
Unfortunatly your at there mercy. Because they did the original work to replace the water pump I would probably let them go ahead with there solution. It is very involved to replace a water pump so a lot of things can get screwed up. theres a crank angle sensor that could be messed up which would also wreak havoc on the ECU.
I thought you had to take the timing belt off to remove the water pump. Its been so long since I did mine I'm not 100% sure anymore. I do remember that getting all three timing marks aligned correctly when putting the new belt back on was a pain in the @$$.
Hopefuly while there in there replacing the temp sensor they will double check there previous work.
How many miles are on your car?
Andy P. 93 GS<hr></blockquote><p>Only have approx 140,000 kilometres on my car (87,500 miles). I bought the car with 110,000 kilometres with a 2 year or 25,000 kilometres warranty on it so I'm assuming that the timing belt did get replaced probably fairly recent before I bought it. But it's just an assumption.<p>Well, I found out why the exhaust was loud. Apparently there's a hole in my midpipe so it needs replacing. As for the coolant sensor, they put in the new one but it's still idling rough and they told me to bring it in again! So far, it's been 3 trips to the dealership with the car still not being fixed after $1000 CAD of repairs (waterpump, thermostat, midpipe, coolant sensor). If the timing belt needs replacing, I'm gonna be right pissed cause they will probably try to charge me for labour even though they should of replaced it when they replaced the waterpump since it was right there! Never had any complaints with dealership repairs until now!<p>[ January 09, 2003: Message edited by: Rich ]</p>

Dealers bite. I hope they fix it man. Good luck. Did you try pulling your own codes?

Ok let me get this straight. You brought your car in for overheating. Other than that it ran just fine with none of the symptoms you are describing. They replace the water pump and now the car has the new problems.
THEY SCREWED UP!. and now they want to do a timing belt which they should have done the first time. The cost of the belt should be the only thing they charge you for if thats what they have to replace not the labor. These are the same mechanics that said the belt looked fine. I wish there was a way you could take a look and see if the timing belt was put on correctly.
If they put the belt back on in the wrong position, it should cost you nothing for them to make it right. If they do replace the belt demand to have the old one returned to you.
Good luck
Andy P. 93 GS

my issue with my car wanting to stall when cold was resolved with a coolant temp sensor. I installed one last night, had no problems this morning.