Temperature bar gage
I inherited a 1993 Lincoln Town Car Cartier it is in
EXCELLENT condition and only has 88,000 original miles
on it. I have this one problem, which just started after I
took my air hose and blew some of the dust off the
engine; now the bar temperature gage goes crazy after
the car runs for a while and the alarm goes off. Let it
idolnin drive for a LONG time...never seemed to heat up,
my question is, could I have caused this by what I did with
air hose? I'm about to take it on a two hour trip, little
nervous about it breaking down in me, any thoughts?
Thanks
4 Answers
Alex, the air hose I was referring to was from my garage air compressor, I didn't disconnect any of the cars air hoses. I thought that the problem may lie within the sending unit area, what's your thoughts on this theory?
Go through the cooling system and check everything, make sure temp sending units are plugged in. There is a temp sensor on the thermostat housing. Take a meter, set it to read ohms, and touch it to the two leads where harness connector plugs in. With engine cold resistance should be high (58K ohms) and with engine hot resistance should be low (2.8K ohms). If engine is not getting hot check thermostat is not stuck open. Be aware that the engine itself could be getting hot, but no heat may come out of the heater core in the passenger cabin if coolant levels are low. So check those levels, try and check for proper coolant flow too - the thermostat is closed at startup, when engine hit operating temp it opens and you get a gush of coolant flowing through radiator, hoses and engine. With older cars you could peer into the radiator and see it flow, newer cars with a sealed radiator and degas bottle you have to rely on feeling hot coolant surge into hoses when thermostat opens.
Edit for above, the temp sensor is on the intake manifold next to thermostat housing, and not part of thermostat housing.
Which wire is the hot wire on a 2000 licolin cont. temp sener there green and white
