Page 1 of 2

What is this sensor?

Posted: October 27th, 2009, 1:38 pm
by trife86
not my picture but need to know what this sensor is on the engine? mine preety much fell apart
Image

Re: What is this sensor?

Posted: October 27th, 2009, 1:42 pm
by Ninjaskill
cooling fan switch i believe :shrug:

Re: What is this sensor?

Posted: October 27th, 2009, 2:45 pm
by Inodoro Pereyra
Yeah, that's the cooling fan switch.

Re: What is this sensor?

Posted: October 27th, 2009, 3:35 pm
by trife86
Looking online for the part is it maybe called the tempature switch or the coolant tempature sender (not sensor)

Re: What is this sensor?

Posted: October 27th, 2009, 4:13 pm
by umcamara
Either coolant temp. sensor or sender, I can't remember. My engine has both, but it's a B6DE not B6Me as your's looks like.

Re: What is this sensor?

Posted: October 27th, 2009, 8:05 pm
by trife86
it was the coolant temp sender. thanks guys

Re: What is this sensor?

Posted: October 27th, 2009, 10:26 pm
by Inodoro Pereyra
No, it's not. The name you'll find it under is "radiator fan switch".
The coolant temperature sender (or sending unit) is the one that feeds data to he ECU.

Re: What is this sensor?

Posted: October 28th, 2009, 12:59 am
by Dark_Rider2k3
Glad my picture came in handy.

Seems to be a ton of thermosensor/fan switch topics.. hopefully I can find my problem in all of these :lol:

Re: What is this sensor?

Posted: October 28th, 2009, 9:28 am
by umcamara
Inodoro Pereyra wrote:No, it's not. The name you'll find it under is "radiator fan switch".
The coolant temperature sender (or sending unit) is the one that feeds data to he ECU.
It's also commonly called the coolant temp sensor or sender, as I said. My engine has both, a coolant temp sender, and a coolant temp sensor, can't remember which that one is called.

Re: What is this sensor?

Posted: October 28th, 2009, 10:55 am
by Inodoro Pereyra
umcamara wrote:
Inodoro Pereyra wrote:No, it's not. The name you'll find it under is "radiator fan switch".
The coolant temperature sender (or sending unit) is the one that feeds data to he ECU.
It's also commonly called the coolant temp sensor or sender, as I said. My engine has both, a coolant temp sender, and a coolant temp sensor, can't remember which that one is called.
I agree. That's he problem: people call them all "coolant temperature sensor", and they're not.

The name I gave is the one you will find it by if you go to a store, or if you buy it on line.

There are 3 units in the coolant circuit:

"Radiator fan switch" is not a sensor. It's a switch. It turns the radiator fan on/off.
"Coolant temperature sensor" (or "sending unit") is a sensor, normally 2 wire. It feeds data to the ECU, for emissions and engine protection purposes.
"Coolant temperature gauge sensor" (or "sending unit") is also a sensor, normally 1 wire. It feeds a signal to the temperature gauge in the dash, so the driver can completely ignore it while driving, and overheat the car anyways.

Re: What is this sensor?

Posted: October 29th, 2009, 5:11 pm
by Ninjaskill
"Coolant temperature gauge sensor" (or "sending unit") is also a sensor, normally 1 wire. It feeds a signal to the temperature gauge in the dash, so the driver can completely ignore it while driving, and overheat the car anyways.

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

man, you nailed it right on the head gasket....

Re: What is this sensor?

Posted: October 29th, 2009, 9:06 pm
by Inodoro Pereyra
Yeah... Ask me how I know... :lol:

Re: What is this sensor?

Posted: November 4th, 2009, 10:13 pm
by Dark_Rider2k3
I would really like to know where "all" of these are. This was a huge problem for me, and, like it has been said a lot, can be confusing when grabbing parts.

I can confirm for the B6 SOHC that:

Water Temperature Sensor (for the ECU): Located Right below Injector #1. Wiring harness for switch is connected with the injector harness.

Radiator Fan switch: Located on the thermostat housing.

I do not know where the Temperature Gauge Sensor is.

Also, is it the Temperature Gauge sensor you must use when swapping in the BP, or the Temperature sensor?. I will probably use all these sensors but just making sure i know what I "must" use.

But yeah I did find my temp. sensor thankfully! Can will be running tomorrow when the part arrives.

Re: What is this sensor?

Posted: November 10th, 2009, 10:07 am
by Ninjaskill
Dark_Rider2k3 wrote:I do not know where the Temperature Gauge Sensor is.
that is located on the cylinder head under the distributor i think. it is a tiny little thing that has only one
connector on it like this:

Image

here is a picture of the sensor for the ECU:

Image

Re: What is this sensor?

Posted: November 10th, 2009, 10:07 pm
by Dark_Rider2k3
Yeah I replaced the ECU sensor. And I see where the engine temp. sensor is.

I just know that something from the SOHC has to be swapped over so that the gauges read correctly. What is that?