Watertemp gauge died today?!

[Dominic]

Well I had the strangest thing happen on my brand new 02 Camaro, and this is NO APRIL FOOLS...

Today, while driving to the dealer, the temp gauge on the left (water) just died and went to the 0 peg... like someone just turned it off. No check gauges light, no SES, just a deadass gauge...

Tomorrow Im going to get it checked out, by time I made it to the dealer they couldnt do anything for me (5PM everyone went home urgh!). Has anyone had this problem before? If so what in the hell is it and how can I fix it?

Also - my fans are running on HIGH 100% of the time, no cycling - coolant levels are fine and the engine is NOT overheating, in fact its running quite cool and pretty good [img]smile.gif[/img] . I just need to get this fixed quickly...

[Pewter2K1]

Bad sending unit/coolant sensor... maybe try a comuter re set... the dealer will fix it

[GoodOneStu]

Yup, i had it happen to me a little while after i put in a 160* thermostat. They ended up replacing my 160 t-stat with a stock one, and the problem went away. I still might try another 160* maybe mine was deffective.

[strange_trp]

bad sensor will cause the pcm to default to "maximum cooling" parameters to prevent possible engine damage from not turning on the cooling fans. check sensor's resistance and compare to specs for given temperature.
also check the circuit, make sure you're getting near 5 volts ref from pcm and that the sensor ground voltage drop is less than 0.1 vdc.

[ April 02, 2002: Message edited by: strange_trp ]</p>

[Dominic]

I appreciate all the info, I will see what I can do today... Going to the dealer now. [img]graemlins/burnout.gif[/img]

[Dominic]

Turns out the sensor fubar'd on me - it was replaced under warranty and nothing caught on fire [img]smile.gif[/img] So Im happy [img]smile.gif[/img]

Thanks!

[awesomeame]

i just had this exact same thing happen to me tonight. will check it out tomorrow with strange_trp's info [img]smile.gif[/img]

--matt

[Dominic]

wrong, someone lock this please! This is due to running a 160F thermostat without an 18K resistor in the IAT to compensate. Please lock this.

[awesomeame]

fixed 'er up today.

checked to make sure i had 5v coming from the pcm to the sensor. good. good ground at the sensor through the pcm. when i turned the ignition to the "on" position, the temp gage moved a little, so obvioulsy there was some kind of signal coming from the pcm to the gage to ground, and that the motor in the gage was good. checked the resistance of the sensor--&gt;low (according to haynes)

i went to partsource, and after a lot of screwing around finally got the temp sensor i needed. got home, installed the gage and put a lighter under it to heat it up. NO DIFFERENCE!!! THEN i figured maybe it'd be smart to make sure i didn't have any DTC's present...i had a pile, with two regarding cooling:

P1114--ECT sensor circuit intermittant low voltage
P0116--ECT sensor circuit performance

i cleared those, and the gage is now working just fine....drove back to partsource and returned the sensor

learned two things:

1) i still feel like an idiot
2) DTC's should be checked before anything else

P0116: The PCM may detect a temperature difference between the ECT and the IAT of more than 20°C (36°F). If this happens, the vehicle must be driven for 5 minutes over 24 km/h (15 mph). If the IAT decreases more than 7°C (12.6°F), a block heater is indicated and the test is aborted. If the IAT temperature does not decrease, a block heater was not detected and this DTC will set

P1114: An intermittent short to ground in the ECT sensor signal circuit could result in a DTC P1114. If the low ECT voltage, or high temperature, reading is present, additional sensor circuit voltage codes could be set. Refer to any non-intermittent DTCs that are set

so everything is good, although i dunno how those codes got set in the first place. a couple things to note tho...the haynes manual says that to check the circuit excluding the sensor, that you should jump the two sensor wires together and that the gage in teh car will go to "full deflection." haynes is full of crap, 'cause this doesn't happen. also the resistance values in the haynes manual don't mean crap....they said the sensor is supposed to be 1365 ohms when it's cold, but i was only reading like 200 ohms, so i thought for sure the sensor was bad

--matt

[awesomeame]

Originally posted by Dominic:
wrong, someone lock this please! This is due to running a 160F thermostat without an 18K resistor in the IAT to compensate. Please lock this.

dominic, can you please further explain this? i DO run a 160* thermo. thanks

--matt

[Dominic]

Reset the PCM and install an 18K Ohm resistor in the IAT and you will not have this problem.

I posted this fix a long time ago here for 01-02 cars.

[awesomeame]

found it...thanks!!!!

--matt