Name that sensor!
 

Ok time to play a little game. Heres the clues. When my entire cooling system froze solid (water only whoops!) the check engine light came on after it was thawed. Now from then on when the car would get warmed up the fuel would cut out and the check engine light would flash. But only for a few seconds and the car would drive perfectly fine as long as it was warm. And now the engine light comes on right away and the car has trouble starting. The car runs perfectly fine however. What sensor is bad???

is the car puffing white smoke?

Nope. No smoke. Car runs excellent and is in good order. No smoke. No leaks.

water temp sensor--- duuuuuh

you know, the one behind the water pump...


now, what troubles me is that the water froze INSIDE the block. we all know what happens to cups that have water in them when we forget them in the freezer. CRACK!

check your ECU codes... that will tell you what is causing the Check Engine Light

That would make sense. But would that mean my gauge wouldn't work? It works perfectly fine. And I hope to god there aren't any cracks in my block (BTW I was fairly low on water due to a leaky water pump. So my block couldn't have been full.) Also my car was an automatic so it had 2 sensors attached to the water pump. I snipped the auto specific one and the car was fine. However the car "cuts" out when its warmed up all the way and then the check engine light comes on.

Gauge sending unit is below the oil filter... single brass male bullet connector.

The water temp sending unit for the ECU is on the backside of the water pump housing, below the filler neck.

Sounds to me like a bad water temp sensor.

And this would cause my car to "cut out" briefly when it warms up?

Water thermo sensor, guys, not water temp sender...

The thermo sensor (back of the pump housing) is responsible for inputing coolant temp signals to the ECU and will cause problems with starting and driveability when bad...

The water temp sender doesn't input to the ECU, so even if bad won't cause any driveability problems...

Check the inputs at the ECU from the sensor if in doubt...

The water froze in your engine? I'm surprised something didn't crack or break!

Yeah I'm surprised too. I made rthe same mistake in my '92 prism and had a freeze plug blow out.

so thats why they call them freeze plugs!!

wow dude, this has happend to you before. Why not just invest the $7 and get anti-freeze? You do know its not only there just so the water doesnt freeze. It has lubrication for your cooling system... ie. your water pump can sieze up.

With as much coolant as my water pump was leaking I wasn't about to spend $7 every 2 days for coolant. Also the weather was really nice and the night before I replaced the water pump it dipped into the 20's and froze right up.

hmmm, id at LEAST run a little coolant in the system. i would take 7 bux every two days than to have to spend some serious money on a new motor and possibly new cooling system components. If i were you, id get a waterpump asap! Anti freeze is also a rust inhibitor and keeps the coolant passages in your cooling system from corroding. REted has some pretty nasty pictures of an engine that was destroyed due to the coolant freezing and cracking the sideplates. Might want to use that as a goal not for it to happen :D

Oh the pump has been replaced months ago. And I'm running antifreeze in it now. The only damage was the sensor.