Coolant sensor location

[peachmon1]

HI. I am new to this forum. I'm looking for the location of the coolant sensor on my 96 MGM. This is the sensor that tells the computer to give the car more gas on cold startup. I have electronic dash. I found the sensor that drives my temperature gauge. It is on the passenger side of the engine. There is another sensor on the driver side of the engine but I don't know it this is the one. I disconneced it from the circuit and it didn't seem to change the reading on the scanner. I"m getting really bad fuel mileage and I suspect that the sensor is defective. I believe that it is reading lower than the actually temperature of the coolant and I may be running rich as a result of this. Thanks

[cobradude360]

id say if ur getting bad fuel milagecheck ur spark plugs see what condition there in and if they look bad or out of gap replace them

[6502dude]

The coollant temperature sensor is located on top of engine, just behind the termostat housing. It threads into water jacket.

The sensor is essentially a thermistor.

If you have a multimeter, set it to measure resistance. You should measure about 50K ohms at 60 degrees F (when car is cold).

Run car to raise to operating temperature and make another resistance mesaurement. The reading should now be around 2K ohms.

If the coollant temperature sensor is at fault, your EEC system memory should have one the following errror codes 116, 117, or 118. Make sure wiring is okay before dropping cash on new sensor.

[cobradude360]

also bad fuel milage could be because of a vacum leak the engine suckin in more air ellin the comp to dump more gas into the engine which would consume more gas thus meaning bad fuel milage

[peachmon1]

Thanks for all the info. I measured 89k ohms when the outside ambient temperature was about 0 degress c, and I measured 3.9k ohms when the vehicle was hot. Is this within tolerances? Or should I replace it. Thanks

[6502dude]

Measurements that you indicate temp sensor is working okay.

I wouldn't replace it. Generally when they fail, you will not be able to read any resistance measurement at all (thermistor goes open).