Can Someone Do Me a Solid Please?

[95KingCab]

Good evening friends,

I was wondering if someone could please do me a solid... I am having an issue where my temp gauge in my 1995 Ka24e hardbody isn't coming up to the where it used to sit when at full operating temp- a needle below 1/2. It now only goes to 1/5 at best... For those of you whose temp comes up to just under 1/2, would you please measure the ohms/resistance that your temp sender is at when at 1/2 on your temp gauge? With the volt meter set to ohms and your temp gauge to 1/2, please put one prong of the meter on the sending unit and one prong to a ground, and let me know what you get? I would suuuper appreciate your help!

Thank you thank you thank you!!!

[Deerhurst]

That information is in the FSM. No need to have someone pull anything apart to check their which may or may not be within spec.

[95KingCab]

Originally Posted by Deerhurst

That information is in the FSM. No need to have someone pull anything apart to check their which may or may not be within spec.

Deerhurst, thank you for your reply. I looked but I couldn't that info anywhere in the FSM. I am very new to working on vehicles, have never looked at an FSM and had a really tuff time deciphering it. I had to Google what FSM even was lol... It all looked like a foreign language to me really. The info might be in there, but I don't really know what I'm looking at when going through that thing. If you would be willing to point me in the right direction, I would really appreciate the helping hand. Thank you and happy holidays.

[Deerhurst]

Sifi and JP are great resources for FSMs and the info within. JP2Code is the master of finding the section you need.



I would assume it would be in electrical troubleshooting. It's been a while since I've broken into a FSM.

[95KingCab]

I'm assuming that the FSM would tell me the range of ohms that the sending unit should be at for various temperatures? I still think that it would be extremely helpful in diagnosing my issue if I knew what ohms others are running with there gauge at around half like mine used to be. If I knew my sending unit was good by testing it out of the vehicle at various temps, but it was running at too high of resistance after driving my truck for a good while, it would indicate that my truck has something odd going on with the cooling system and its not coming up to the temp that it used to. Also, if my sending unit is at a similar resistance as others after both trucks are fully warmed up, this would indicate that my gauge is bad if mine is at 1/4 and theirs is at 1/2. All in all, if anybody would tell me what resistance their sending unit is when their temp gauge is nearly half, it would be some very valuable information to me and I would very much appreciate it. Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving.

[Deerhurst]

Yes, it'll give you specs on what you should be reading on your meter at certain senarios.



I believe you can short the pins and the gauge should go to max.



The problem with trying to measure when the vehicle is warmed up to half temp is the gauge is more of an idiot gauge vs an actual number so the actual temps could be very different from one another. My gauge doesn't move much from 170F to around 200F. The thermistor in the sensor is probably low value and the change could only be a few tenths of an ohm. The thermistor is likely a low value, wide tolerance part.

[YEPEE]

was driving my 95 yesterday and noticed my temp gauge was maybe a 1/3 of the way up, my 86.5 runs about 1/2 way.. doesnt matter if I am towing w/ac on in the middle of summer or not...

[YEPEE]

was driving my 95 yesterday and noticed my temp gauge was maybe a 1/3 of the way up, my 86.5 runs about 1/2 way.. doesnt matter if I am towing w/ac on in the middle of summer or not... it did drop when I got into cold country.. which surprised me

[SBJ]

There are actually two coolant temperature sensors. They are right next to each other on top of the intake manifold. The one with 2 pins goes to the ECU and the one with a single spade connector is for your temp gauge. Seconding Deerhurst's post above, if you turn the key on and ground the temp sensor pin to the intake manifold, you should see the gauge go all the way up to the red.

Originally Posted by YEPEE

it did drop when I got into cold country.. which surprised me

My camry does this too. Normally when it's up to temp the gauge will sit a little below the halfway point, but it's been pretty cold here the past few days. When I was driving it around yesterday I noticed that it took a bit longer to warm up and the gauge drops closer to 1/3 if I'm on the highway. The heat still works fine, so it's nothing to worry about.