Coolant Temp Gauge?

[CoAsTeR]

I have an 88' accord LX. I want to install my aftermarket temperature gauge/sensor. If I unhook the factory sensor, will it affect the performance of the car? Does the computer or whatever need the feedback from the coolant temperature sensor, or can I just remove it and put my aftermarket one in and use it instead? Thanks

CoAsTeR

[smufguy]

the coolent sensor controlls the relay that senses when to turn the cooling fans on and off. since its all plugged into the ECU, just plugging in wont be such a good i dea. what u can do is, splice it and branch it to your Aftermarket one. u wont have to fiddle with busting under your dash to get the wired unhooked and stuff like that. but hey, what ever works and looks cool.

[A20A3Power]

yea its a helluva lot easier to just splice the wire into the sensor wire..cuse if u unplug it, it will cause ur car to overcool cuse the fans will always be on....i have one on my car..and i like it a lot because i can tell with it when the thermostat is bad...because even with the heat off or the A/C runnin in traffic...the temp will never get hotter than 150 degrees...(i had an autometer gauge). When i put in a new thermostat, the gauge jumped to 180-200 degrees...right were it should be..and even on the highway doin 80 and with the heat on, the temp only comes down to like 180...no less..and the car warms up a lot quicker too...

[CoAsTeR]

correct me if I'm wrong, but I did some research and according to what I found is that my car has 3 sensors. One on the rad, to turn the fans on and off, one under the intake manifold for the ECU and one at the back of the manifold for the temp gauge. I think it should be okay to undo the temp gauge sensor without doing harm to anything. Maybe on the newer cars its a diff story though, but mines only an 88'.

Thanx for your time guys!

CoAsTeR

[smufguy]

its the thermostat thats the main concern i suppose. u see two sensors on a lx-i and one on a lx or dx models. so i guess, for more accurate reading, the sensor/sensors on the thermostat would provide a more accurate reading cause why would they call it a thermostat then? the sensor on the radiator is to turn the relay for the fans to cool the antifreeze/coolent in the radiator once it reaches a certain temp. but it does not record or measure the coolent temp in the engine block (or around it).

[POS carb]

I answered this question somewhere else. You don't need to splice anything, use the wire on the rear of the manifold that goes to the guage, it is independant of the ECU's and the fan's sensor

[smufguy]

POS carb to the rescue. GOt all our wrong ideas flattened.

[CoAsTeR]

BAH... I find the sensor, take it out no problem.. but the aftermarket sensor is WAY to big. it wont even come close to fitting.... its made for like a domestic small/big block or something. Ahh well, see if I can find an alternative I guess.

Thanks guys...