temperature gauge is not working

"Sender" and "sensor" in this case are two different terms for the same thing. You have two of them because one is for the dash gauge and gives very little trouble, and one is for the engine computer and has caused Ford a lot of running problems. The one for the gauge has only one wire going to it. The one for the computer will always have two wires.

Unplug the wire from the single-wire sensor and ground it. That should make the gauge read full hot when the ignition switch is turned on. If it does, you know the gauge and wire to it are okay. That leaves the sensor. Why there are three sensors listed depends on whether you are looking at three different suppliers or there were three different ones used on your car model. You can buy them from any supplier and any parts store, but Ford is famous for changing something in the middle of a model year. The guys behind the counter at the parts stores will ask you whatever it is about your car that is different according to the notes in their parts catalogs. Most commonly with Fords they will ask you the date the car was built. That can be found in the top left or right corner of the sticker, usually found on the back of the driver's door opening.

I just checked the car and both sensors have two wires going to it. There is a coolant leak somewhere but, i know for certain that no hoses are leaking or not tightened properly since I just switched out a hose a month ago. Could the gauge not be working because of a short out? The main worry that I have is that the car is going to heat up a bit and the fan wont turn on to help cool down the engine. By the way the car does not have a thermostat installed.

The engine cannot warm up without a thermostat. The coolant will circulate through way too quickly and will not have time to get warm. You likely do not have a gauge problem. To tell, feel the air temperature coming from the heater. Also, feel the upper radiator hose it should be too hot to hold onto for very long.

I found three different temperature sensors but did not know which engine size to look up. Two of them have two wires and one of them has one wire. I suspect there is a warning light on the dash along with the temperature gauge. That would explain the second wire.

It is a 2.0 Zetec engine. No light on the dash, which is what i find weird. If it was a sensor then a light should be on, at least the "check engine" light (makes my stomach sink when it comes on).
The car has not had a thermostat since I got it four years ago. I think my dad either had it removed or we bought it without one back in 2002.

Replace the thermostat first before you go looking for a gauge problem that probably does not even exist. I just got done typing for over an hour for a fellow who asked what can happen when there is no thermostat in the engine. It boils down to increased fuel consumption, low power, greatly increased engine wear, and higher emissions. Many self-tests will not be run by the engine computer so some fault codes will never set to let you know a problem has been detected.

As for engine wear, you are very unlikely to get 50,000 miles from an engine that is not running at the right temperature. Ninety nine percent of engine wear takes place in the few minutes a cold engine is warming up. That is why vehicles that see nothing but highway driving live to see such ridiculously high mileages, like my 1988 Grand Caravan with almost 400,000 miles. When your engine stays too cold it is constantly wearing excessively with every mile you drive.

I saw how much thermostats cost and I guess I was wrong, i assumed they would be some ridiculously overpriced part. one question, is it still okay to drive the car? If the car starts to overheat, will the fan come on regardless of what the gauge says?
That is the reason this car is past the 200,000 mile mark, I mostly do highway driving. We also have an 1984 Ford Ranger with over 400,000.

I checked the wiring and one of the connections and wires for a sensor is soaked in antifreeze. I am assuming that could cause the problem.

I should have said, "As for engine wear, you are very unlikely to get 50,000 more miles from an engine that is not running at the right temperature. The thermostat was not out of the engine for all of it has 200,000 miles.

Nothing is going to suddenly fly apart but excessive wear is taking place in the engine. If I can find my other reply I will paste a copy for you. You are not going to do sudden damage in the short-term but as a person who beats the last ounce of life out of everything before I discard it, I pay particular attention to anything that can make them last longer. Thermostats do not fail as often as people think. They often remove them in a misguided attempt at solving a problem.

As for overheating, if that were to happen, the engine computer will turn the radiator fan on. It does not know about the missing thermostat; it just watches the coolant temperature.

Coolant in a wire or its connector comes from leaking through the sensor. That is not real common but it did follow the wire all the way inside the car on a GM product a few years ago and made puddles on the floor. That is because there were no connectors in between like you normally find at the firewall, and thanks to the rubber weather-pack seals in the sensor's connector, the coolant leaking through it had no place to go except to get forced between the wire and its insulation. In your case, replace the leaking sensor and dry off the coolant on the connector pins. Use a little brake parts cleaner or electrical contact cleaner in a spray can to wash it out. Be sure to check for signs of corrosion or residue that could interfere with it making a good contact.

I found a fail-safe thermostat so I am gonna install that and I also noticed that the sensors have a seal on them so I figured the one in there got worn out since it is the original part. I figure I am going to be on this site often asking for some help since the car is breaking down more often, still not enough to warrant getting rid of it.

My temperature gauge does not work...I have already replaced the temperature sensor, now I'm trying to locate where the temperature switch is on the engine so I can attempt to replace that....I need to know where the switch is located. I have the 4 cylinder, 2.0L engine. Thanks!

your temp sensor is located below the t-stat housing and has two wires going to it. remove the connector by squeezing it and then pulling. ground the white/red wire. turn the key on observe temp gauge..if it goes to full hot..replace temp sender. no movement..recheck your jumper to ground connection and retest.

Thanks! Found the switch and did the ground test and the gauge pegged all the way to hot, so the switch itself is bad....only problem is that AutoZone sold me the wrong style of switch, so I'll have to return the part I purchased and hopefully get the right one and my problems will be solved....hopefully! Thanks again for the help!!!

My daughters 1998 Contour 2.0L ~120,000. The temperature gauge stopped working a couple of months ago. The car runs fine. She just graduated from college so were trying to save money. What is the best sequence of tests to find the problem? Where might these components to test be located? We do not have a repair manual. Thanks!

justanold, sorry for the delay...had to wait for my daughter.

1) the gauge does not move at all.
2) New York State, but why?
3) the radiator cooling fan does cycle.

Thanks Again!

Hello again Justanold... we did the test this evening on her weekly visit and the gauge pegged, so we'll be looking for a new temperature sender unit to install. My daughter specifically said to THANK YOU!

Hi I have the same problem with my 1996 Contour - is there an easy way to access the temp sender? Mine is blocked by the coolant pipes

Karayz,
It is a pain to get to but I can't answer your question. At the time my daughters car needed other work, So we paid about $40 to have the shop install the sensor. I did have to go to the dealer to get the correct sensor, that was another $40.
Regards

i recently had the head reworked and after getting it back together the temp. guage will not work. i checked all the connections and made sure nothing was unpluged. i installed a new temp. sensor and that did not help. i don't want to take it to the ford dealership so any help will be much appreceipted.

My temp gauge does not move at all. My fan works and I removed the sensor and measured the resistance and it was 24K in room temp. I put it hot water and it went down to 8K and then I iced it and it went to 80K. It seems that the senosr should be fine but I don't know what I should read for the resistance. I shorted two sensor wires with a short jumper and the gauge did not move. You said short red/white wire. Which one? One of them or both?

More info. I also called Ford parts and they told me that I have taken out water sensor and I need to test water sender. Water temp sender is for the gauge and sensor is for overheating. My car does not overheat.

Hi
take a test light or a ground wire,unplug the temp sensor . there is two temp sensors the one for the guage only has one wire to it. unplug this ground the wire out turn key on does the guage go all the way over? if yes sensor is the prob.


you have to be sure you are working with the right sensor..write back if this don,t help.

I just had the speedometer cable replaced on Thursday and all of a sudden the temperature gauge stopped working and now the air bag light keeps flashing on continuously. Could this be because they screwed with the wiring?

They may have loostened or bumped wiring behind the dash. I would take it back and have them recheck their work.

The temp gauge doesn't go up. I have replaced termostat and temp gauge sensor. I have good heat. all the fuses are good what else could the problem be? water pump was replaced 1200 miles ago.

If its the water pump it'll be overheating-could be the temperature gauge itself or wiring problem to it

Don't really know how to access the wiring but the gauge does move alittle.

About a month back my thermostat went, the car overheated and I had it towed. I had the thermostat replaced and the car worked fine for about a week. Since then the temperature gauge has been acting up. The gauge will go to hot and then back to normal within seconds. The first time it did it, there was no coolant missing. The second time, the coolant was gone in the overflow. I had the replacement thermostat tested and they said it was fine. They found a cracked heating hose, which they replaced. Since then, the car has leaked coolant onto the driveway, and continued heating up and going back to normal within seconds. It has even started going to cold and back to normal within seconds. The last time this happened I could feel that my heat was luke warm. The coolant was gone in the overflow again this time. What is going on?!

[quote:a60b740105="PamelaCM"]Engine problem
1998 Ford Contour 4 cyl Two Wheel Drive Automatic 49000 miles
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About a month back my thermostat went, the car overheated and I had it towed. I had the thermostat replaced and the car worked fine for about a week. Since then the temperature gauge has been acting up. The gauge will go to hot and then back to normal within seconds. The first time it did it, there was no coolant missing. The second time, the coolant was gone in the overflow. I had the replacement thermostat tested and they said it was fine. They found a cracked heating hose, which they replaced. Since then, the car has leaked coolant onto the driveway, and continued heating up and going back to normal within seconds. It has even started going to cold and back to normal within seconds. The last time this happened I could feel that my heat was luke warm. The coolant was gone in the overflow again this time. What is going on?![/quote:a60b740105]





You need to check coolant level and adjust
also you need to have the coolant system pressure check
it sounds like you have a leak
and it need to be checked soon

the temp gage spikes to the red but the car is not running hot could the sensor for the thermostat be bad ?

I would make sure it isn't running hot. If it isn't but the temp gauge says it is, then chances are you have a bad temp sending unit.

Contour 1995 2L 140,000mi.When I start the car temp. gauge goes into red .Changed thermostat,also coolant temp. sensor .

check the wiring from the tempeture sending unit to the firewall and see if it is gounding out anywhere

Did you say that you changed the water temperature indicator sender?
If your taurus is the same as my explorer, the sensor will read to ground between 73 ohms when the engine is cold and 9.7 ohms when it is hot.
Check it with an ohm meter. and let us know.

Also, if the sensor is within range, with the engine off, check the resistance to ground from the wire going back to the instrument panel. If there is little or no resistance, there is probably a short as mentioned by the M_J_RITZEL's message.

If our suggestions work, or even if they don't, let us know. vote for us if you think we deserve it.

1996 ford contour 2.0, temp gauge hot part of normal, replaced coolant temp sensor, temp sensor, when the car is hot its about 170 degrees somethings faulty wiring, when i put in new temp sensor the temp gauge went into the red, the car aint overheating my gauge is messed up i think

If you are sure the vehicle isn't overheating, check wiring from the sensor. Make sure it isn't shorting. Also, check connectors to make sure they are in good condition.

In my 97 Ford Contour my temperature gauge only works once in a while. It just usually stays all the way down like it does when the car is off. Why?

Do you have any issue with the heat and if so suspect ,test and replace thermostat
if not check the connector and sensor
by the thermostat housing
good luck

I have a 1999 Ford Contour SE. The temperature gauge barely moved after driving about 10 miles. It was 10 degrees this morning and my boyfriend says I didn't let the car heat up enough. I let it heat up for about 10 minutes. Is there a problem with the temperature gauge or is he right?

Well, I can tell you that he is wrong. How quickly you drive the car has no effect on how quickly it get up to temperature. There could be a number of reasons. My first suspect would be a bad thermostat but it could be a problem with the temp gauge but if you're not getting sufficient heat, I doubt that. It could also be getting to the proper temp but having a problem with the heater.

Thank you for the reply! I am getting sufficient heat, but I just thought it was odd that the temp gauge barely register above C. If I am getting heat, do I need to have this inspected? Also, how long am I supposed to let the car heat up before driving? I read only a few minutes, so I thought 10 minutes was sufficient.

Yes, you're letting it warm up sufficiently. It sounds like you may have a problem with the temp gauge if you are getting sufficient heat.

Thank you!