Temp Gauge Acting Funny :(

[Gummiegorilla]

Hey there all well i have a bit of a problem, when i turn my key to the on position with the engine cold , the temp gauge jumps up past the H mark right away , even before the engine has had a chance to warm up . could this be a cooling prob or something wrong with my gauge cluster. Also , my odometer stopped working a long time ago lol, could that have something to do with it ? Does anyone have any clue to what that might be ? any opinions and help would be much appreciated , thanks

[deevergote]

The cluster may be shot, or you may have a wiring short somewhere.

Swapping the cluster would probably be the easiest thing to test first. It's a bit of a pain to get out, but not too bad.

[wed3k]

it's a one wire connection in the passenger side of the cylinder head. check if the gauge moves when you unplug it. it should go down to nothing.

[Gummiegorilla]

it's a one wire connection in the passenger side of the cylinder head. check if the gauge moves when you unplug it. it should go down to nothing.

so i disconected the one wire from the the coolant temp gauge and the needle went to nothing , would that mean thats the prob is the coolant temp sensor ?

[deevergote]

It's possible. It shows that the sensor is at least sending something... The error could be in the sensor, or in the cluster reading the signal from the sensor.

The sensor would be easier and cheaper to replace, though. I'd go for that first. Even if it doesn't fix the problem, it never hurts to have a nice new sensor!

[wed3k]

yea, it's the sensor.

[Gummiegorilla]

well i wanted to test the fans and other components too while i was takin things apart, I made a jumper wire for the harnesses to the condensor fan and the fan turned right on. the only thing was that the jumper wire worked great to turn the fan on when the engine was off , but once i turned the engine on i tried the jumper wire again and nothing happened. could this be a faulty relay ? or is that how its supposed to work. i was waiting for a while for the fan to turn on by itself after i reconnected the harness and ran the engine for a while but it didnt, i also just replaced the thermostat and dropped in some new coolant. could it be possilbe that the engine just wasnt getting hot enough for the fans to kick on ? these cooling probs are a pain

[semitas]

it might be the sensor on the water neck or the temp switch near the thermostat housing

[Gummiegorilla]

it might be the sensor on the water neck or the temp switch near the thermostat housing

alrighty then , so i changed the coolant temp gauge sending unit , both condensor fan switchs (the one on the thermostat housing and the one on the upper radiator hose neck), and the coolant temp sensor for the ecm , and its still doing it. but now its a little different, when i turn the key to on with the engine off it doesnt go up. but then ill turn the car on , and the engine will be running for about 45 secs and then it jumps up past the H again, like i said before , i already put a jumper wire on both fans and they kicked right on , so i guess that the prob would be the gauge cluster right ?? ...so hhhmmm....does anyone have an extra gauge cluster for a 92 ex they wanna give away or sell if anyone else thinks that this might be something else please post it up

[Ander]

I've heard that this is a symptom of a blown head gasket.

Just something i've heard. Maybe something to look in to.

[92smokeaccord]

the reason y ur fan does that is because when its jumped it still has to work with ur temp sensor. there are 2 diff temp sensors in our cars. one is the normal temp which is on the head the other is the fan temp sensor which kicks the fan on at a certain temp past 190 degrees f. if u jump one the fans stay on even if the car is off. it will stay on about 10-15 min. after they stop they wont come back on till u turn ur key on again.

[Gummiegorilla]

I've heard that this is a symptom of a blown head gasket.

Just something i've heard. Maybe something to look in to.

Blown head gasket ! man i really hope that isnt true.

[Gummiegorilla]

well the fan kicked on after a little bit after the thermostat opened up, but the gauge is still reading way past high. ......does anyone know of a way to check engine temps without using the cluster ?

[deramansa]

have u checked the groundings?the same thing happened to mine..i found out that the bolt holding the pin was loose..its located on the passenger kick panel with a white plastic cover holding bunch of black wires..on the service manual it says G401 & G402..

good luck..

[Losiracer2]

its def. that sensor under the distributor. I had a wiring issue though...since that plastic plug gets BAKED b/c it gets so hot, when I was replacing my headgasket on my F22, I had to unplug it. And since it was never unplugged for 14 years, the plug broke.

So do this, go to the JY and find a better condition connector and cut and splice that one onto your existing wiring. Solder it and shrink wrap it if possible. If that doesn't work, then you know its the sensor.

Its either one or the other, the connector or the sensor.