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Broken Wire

Posted: July 17th, 2012, 7:06 pm
by 92StockMx3
So this week i'll be cleaning up the engine a little bit and in the process i found a broken wire that i can't find where it goes. Car runs and drives fine but the Temp gauge doesnt work. The plug for the Thermo sensor is connected and there is a single wire connected to the plug.
There is also a L shaped connector that plugs onto the engine with 2 wires going to the one side and none on the other, there is no clip or broken wire in the plug.
I've added a picture to better display the situation. The broke wire is black with an Orange stripe. Thanks for any help you can give! :D


Image

Re: Broken Wire

Posted: July 27th, 2012, 3:02 pm
by 92StockMx3
Well the wire does have something to do with the thermo sensor. I grounded it to where i thought it should go and the gauge goes straight to Hot when i turn the key, I'll give it a better look around next week as i have no idea where it can go.

Now that i look seems i should have posted this in the electrical section :oops: .

Re: Broken Wire

Posted: July 30th, 2012, 3:40 am
by stepchyld
The wire will go to the temp sending unit. I can't say where it is on the SOHC, but glance in the online manual, shouldn't be hard to find.
Now you know your temp gauge works!
Find that sensor, and if you have to splice a wire in to make the connection (if part of the wire is missing), get wire of the same gauge, otherwise your temp gauge could give a faulty reading.
The thermosensor sends temp data to the ecu for the air/fuel ratio; the temp sending unit sends same basic info to the gauge. on some cars, those two sensors are one unit, but not ours, and the thermosensor will not, at least in DOHC, cause a code and light the CEL.

Re: Broken Wire

Posted: July 30th, 2012, 4:52 am
by 92StockMx3
I had place look at my car wabout 2 years ago when it was overheating at that time i didnt have a needle on the gauge cluster but i had an after market gauge. I mistakenly unplugged the thermosensor and attacked the aftermarket gauge to that thinking it was the temp sending unit.

Now that i think about it the garage must have plugged the wire back in and hooked the aftermarket gauge up to the temp sending unit and just cut the old gauge wire because it didnt work.

It's all coming together and making sense now, after work i'll go out and hook it up. Thanks a ton for the help! :mrgreen:

Re: Broken Wire

Posted: August 4th, 2012, 11:45 am
by stepchyld
That'd make sense...
Glad to help!

Without thermosensor hooked up, your car would be running rich and eventually foul the plugs. If you only had it unhooked for a brief time, shouldn't be an issue...

Re: Broken Wire

Posted: August 5th, 2012, 2:59 pm
by 92StockMx3
Stock gauge doesn't work with the aftermarket sensor, tried hooking them both up and neither work.Only the aftermarket one works when attached by itself. I guess i'll have to buy a stock sensor and just run the stock gauge better for a cleaner look, anyways no point in having two gauges that do the same thing.