The temperature guage quit working. What is the typical cost to repair? Is it worth it given the age of the vehicle?
Since I have no idea why it quit how would I even guess at a repair price . I don’t even know the hourly repair charge for where ever you are . Age has nothing to do with this problem . If the vehicle overheats you need to be warned before you ruin the engine.
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The guage quit for “no apparent reason”. It just quit working and I suppose it was a faulty mechanism. And yes, the guage has a purpose but at $365.00 it is an expensive repair for an older vehicle with almost 300,000 kilometers on the speedometer.
Volvo is 100% right, an overheating engine can/will cost you thousands in repair cost PLUS what ever it cost to repair the gauge problem… I know I would not repair an overheating vehicle that I had to warranty with no gauge working…
Who told you that it would cost $365.00??? and what parts are involved??
$365.00 would probably not even be half of a one month payment for a new Tacoma, so in retrospect $365.00 is cheap… But again has it been properly diagnosed???
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$365 for a working coolant temperature gauge? I’d be willing to pay it myself, in order to have that function. One option you might have that would be less expensive is to switch from a gauge to a dashboard warning light. Ask your shop if that option is available. It would require a replacement sender unit and some wiring change or PCM reprogramming.
Note: While the gauge might be optional from your point of view, the PCM absolutely requires knowing what the coolant temperature is. Coolant temperature affects how much fuel is injected for example. So even if you decide to pass on knowing the temperature yourself, ask your shop to use their scan tool to verify the coolant-temp info to the PCM is still working.
Suck it up. Cars are expensive and that is a cheap repair. My last 2 repair bills for my older cars were $1700 and $1300.
Tell me how much car can you buy for $365?
Oh, and the gauge quit for a reason, you just don’t know what that is. Stuff breaks on a 22 year old car.
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To help diagnose, you could hook up an OBD2 reader. Coolant temp is one of the many operating conditions those things monitor. If there is no temp reading, that points to a problem with the (or a) temp sensor or its circuitry. A bad temp sensor is usually an easy and inexpensive fix.
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It depends.
If the problem is with the coolant temp sensor? Not expensive at all.
If the problem is with the instrument cluster? That’s going to cost a bit more.
Tester
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Thank you, much appreciated.
WJ
Thanks for the advice, much appreciated.
At 21 years old and not a collectible vehicle, I’d think twice before spending money on filling the gas tank!
It’s a Toyota, not a Mopar.
Tester
lol … I expect the truck remains in good condition and worth keeping that way. The Tacoma is a frequent contestant in the America’s Truck Night contests, and being a nimble-beast, usually does pretty good. Other than in pulling contests with large, heavy trucks with front & rear locking differentials.