Temp sensor

taurus 95 needle runs hot. Like to know how to locate location of sensor and thermistor as well as how to troubleshoot the problem.

A service manual, such as Haynes, will show you the location of the sensor(s) and tell you how to test them. These manuals are well worth the small amount of money they cost.

you need the manual to get you headed in the right direction.

this may be caused by:

bad thermostat (cheapest fix)

bad water pump (also check belt)

bad temp sending unit (but unlikely)

or…

getting into the next category of fun places to dive into your car.

radiator clogged/plugged (is the radiator hot when you run the car?)

radiator hose collapse (you can look/feel for these yourself)

The sensor is usually located near the main coolant lines. If the gauge reads normally while the engine is cold and then goes up as the engine heats up then the sensor itself is most likely okay and the real problem is related to something else. If the gauge immediately goes to hot while the engine is cold then look for a sensor lead problem. By removing the lead to the sensor, the gauge may read cold. By shorting the lead to ground the gauge should read hot. If there is a problem with the lead then you will see something diffrent.

If the sensor is really showing the correct temp then there is a cooling problem. Most obviously this could be caused by low coolant level. If the temperature rises fairly quickly the thermostat may be a stuck. Other possibilities are a blocked radiator, water pump or cooling fan problems, or a blown head gasket. My Spidee sense is telling me this is really a head gasket problem but I hope I’m wrong.

Autozone (www.autozone.com) has a repair guide for the 86 - 95 Taurus.

http://www.autozone.com/servlet/UiBroker?ForwardPage=az/cds/en_us/0900823d/80/0d/2d/74/0900823d800d2d74.jsp

Ed B.