Sensor - but no port to plug it in too????

HEY I just made a MAJOR DISCOVERY AND I NEED YOUR HELP!

Ok...heres the deal...when revved my car sends out some nice black clouds of smoke. So I am cleaning my throttle body and while connecting everything back together I see some random sensor just hanging down and not connected to anything. This sensor runs right to the firewall, and has two inserts for two prongs. It right next to the battery (420A) and runs right next to the washer fluid resevoir and looks like the air sensor or something (I think MAF?).

Heres the deal the kid I bought my eclipse from installed an AEM intake and must have never installed the sensor, because there is no hole in the intake for it. So my question is, what is this sensor thing for and is it the reason why my car is sending out black smoke. ALSO MY CARS CEL SAYS MY CAR IS RUNNINNG LEAN!!

Did I just find the culprit!?

probably the IAT(intake air temperature) sensor,

No the IAT is in the middle of of the back of the intake manifold, this one is like next to the throttle body position sensor, it to the right of it.

any help??

that might be your timing ground connector? do you have a pic? that should help a lot!

Man I wish I had a camera, Sorry!

But i feel that it must be the Maf or something to do with the air. Because on my cavalier, there is sensor that is IDENTICAL to the one described above, and it is attached to the intake!!!

On 2g eclipse non-turbo, is there supposed to be a sensor of some sort on the intake (not the manifold) but the tube/metal intake pipe itself??

THANKS!

Yes, that is your problem. Its messing up the ECU and it thinks its giving it enough fuel because the sensor isn't reading the correct air. You need to get that fixed ASAP. If you run it too hard while its like that you could damage something internally from running so lean.

Maybe you can just drill a hole in the intake and make your own little bung for it. Is the sensor threaded on the end?

i have the same thing with mine there is the whiper floied pulg that hangs way down then there are 2 smaller pulgs that hang right above it they dont hang much further down then the break fluid i never could get them to reach to anything and i dont see any sensors that arent pulged in so i just havent worried about it the car still runs great

Yes, that is your problem. Its messing up the ECU and it thinks its giving it enough fuel because the sensor isn't reading the correct air. You need to get that fixed ASAP. If you run it too hard while its like that you could damage something internally from running so lean.

Maybe you can just drill a hole in the intake and make your own little bung for it. Is the sensor threaded on the end?


THANKS! You see for my cavalier i drilled a hole for the sensor, and i used some washers (to space it out) and duct tape and the sensor worked perfect. BUT the problem is, the sensor in the eclipse needs to connect to a plastic piece and then THAT plastic piece goes into the intake, and I think/know that the previous owner threw out that piece because it is connected to the rubber intake tube.

What do you mean by is the sensor threaded on the end!?

THANKS

Ohhhh so you are just left with the plug and no sensor?

Well, it has the wires running from the harness and then theres the clip thingy but there is nothing for me to clip it in too. I hope that makes sense

I dont have any sensors that run into my intake pipe.

Hmmm, you guys should have some sort of airflow sensor in your intake pipe. The ECU has to get its air reading from somewhere... I'll check into it tomorrow after work and see what I can find out for ya.

ive still got my stock intake and there is nowhere to pulg and sensor into it there is a sensor on the TB tho but not on the intake

OK this is weird?!?!

I just checked out a nearby 1995 eclipse and it also did NOT have a sensor plugged into the airbox/airtube AND it didnt even have a sensor where in my car it hangs! What I mean is that my car has this random sensor/wire just hanging right next to the battery, I could swear that it is the MAF (or whatever)...did these only come into effect on the 1997 eclipse?

LOL this is bugging me!!

i have a 98 gs and i too have a plug but mines right were the air box used to be kind of near the front of my car,i wounder what it is if you look into it the inside of the plug is orange,if that helps

No, my mysterious sensor has two wires running room the harness which is attached to the firewal. The wires themselves are black and red and come out about 5 inches (from the harness), and the weather protection rubber thing is blue, and there are two inserts for two prongs..?!

I hope that could help. I wish I had a camera, i'll try and post up a pic and just circle the area that it is in....

Ok, I just looked into it and there is supposed to be an Intake Air Temperature (IAT) sensor on the backside of your intake manifold right in the center. I think this is right around where you say the wire is coming from the firewall next to the battery. Make sure your wires are connected to that. If there is nothing connected to them, I'd plug it in and give it a whirl. If they are already there, then I'm not real sure what they are for then. Because, I found out that the 420a's MAP sensor is inside your intake manifold on the left side of it. There is a plug that goes straight down onto it from the top. I suppose you could check that also to make sure it is connected. If they both are, then you could have a bad sensor and that could be causing your CEL code for it being lean. If neither of those are it, then a picture might help out some more. lol Good luck.

Well... The two sensors that you (blackcrow) talk about are all connected. The one in the middle of the intake manifold is connected, and the second one (the one from the top)...thats connected to.

Its just really weird, the sensor is just hanging in there, this is weird.

I tried to post a picture, but when I uploaded it, the screen said, "network connection failure" or one of those annoying messages.

Let the suggestions keep coming!!!!

(Thanks for all ya'lls help too)!

Well, I'm outta ideas for the moment... I guess all ya can do is check around on the firewall and such for where the wires may plug into. I found some similar red and black wires going into a blue harness on my firewall but I am unsure of what its for. Thats why I figured you could look around there for an empty plug.

Yea..well..hopefully something will turn up

Thanks alot blackcrow for your time and whatnot.

No problem man, we're all here to help each other out. :smokin:

i took some pictures but myt camera wont load them on the computer...

I GOT IT!!!!!! LOL

The missing sensor must have been an air sensor, because it fixed the problem kinda (got rid of CEL and less smoke from the exhaust!). :naughty:

Heres what happened:

I couldnt find or come to reason why any other eclipse would not have this particualr air sensor..so I thought...hmmmm...The ECU "thinks" I am getting no air (since the air sensor is hooked up to nothing) but meanwhile I do have a AEM intake, so I am getting pleny of air. So then I thought how would I trick the ECU into "thinking" the car is getting cold air (even though it is)...FOLLOW ME?...Anyways, then I took some time to think...hmmmmm...AND I GOT IT! I took one of those resistors chips (the ones off of ebay, that supposedly increase horsepower 20+, because all they do is just trick the ECU into "thinking" that it is getting cold air)...So I pluged it into the sensor, and fired up the engine...After some miles driving the CEL went away, and the black smoke from the exhaust has lessened significantly!!

WOW, was I happy! :iceslolan

haha, good idea. Did it increase your power like it claims it does?

Well, On my cavalier (thats where I took the resistor off of) I did notice a small gain, but on the eclipse no. I think its because I already have all teh goodies on theh eclipse and on my cavalier just a ebay intake!

Awesome, I'm glad to see you got it fixed.