Faulty temp sensor?

Soldato
Joined
8 Nov 2003
Posts
7,409
Location
UK
Hello.

First up, my car is a 94 Fiesta 1.6 Si 16v zetec.

Most of the time the temp reads, well it doesn't read at all - it sits at min all the time. But it starts reading the temperature when the cooling fan cuts in!

For example, today when I took it out for a thrash and then got stuck at some road works for 5 minutes the fan cut in and the temp gauge read just above the halfway mark and the car felt even more uncomfortable to drive when pulling away.

What is at fault here?

Oh and when I press the throttle from changing gear at low speeds I have to be really really smooth and gentle with it otherwise the whole car feels like it's lunging. And I have to let up the clutch quite slowly too.
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
8 Nov 2003
Posts
7,409
Location
UK
BTTT again. :(

Also when coming off the throttle is judders slightly.

I'm wanting to get rid of the thing when I can but just want to sort the problems in the mean time.

Ta.
 
Don
Joined
24 Feb 2004
Posts
11,878
Location
-
To me, that sounds like a dodgy sensor unit somewhere. Probably something mixed in with fuel / air intake and engine temperature. If the engines cold it'll need more fuel / air to keep alive but if the temp sensor is mis-reading, then it'll be reading as cold all of the time and over fuelling all of the time?

Try finding out whether you can plug the ECU into an error code reader or something similar. Better ideas than none!
 
Soldato
OP
Joined
8 Nov 2003
Posts
7,409
Location
UK
Just had a thought...

Could the distributer cap be part of the reason why it's feeling jerky off throttle?

I have cleaned the Mass Flow Air sensor and that helped on/off throttle a little bit.

Just to clear things up. If I nail the throttle the car feels like i've hit a brick wall as does coming off the throttle - i've adapted to this and all the movements with my feet are very smooth (not a bad thing) but for anyone who jumps into my car is going to feel very uncomfortable if they drive it - I want to sell it...

I don't have a lot of money to play with because I have tax and MOT coming up not to mention insurance so would like to try and fix this problem!
 
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