I bought my car about a year ago for six hundred bucks. 89 GTU. When i got the car, the engine and tranny were pulled out and the engine (not the housings) had been disassembled. For the last nine months or so i've been piecing this puzzle back together, buying parts that were missing whenever i'm able to. I just recently ran into one of, HOPEFULLY, my last problems. I'm missing a knock sensor. I traded my old core for a rebuilt motor from the dealership. Anyhow i priced this knock sensor from the factory (the guy that works there definately helps me out) and even at his price, it's astronomical like 250.

He mentioned that i could probably run the car without it. Does anyone know if this actually works? Or could it seriously hurt something? Or will it make the error beeps start chirping?

 

Is your car converted to turbo? NAs didn't have knock sensors.

 

it's a N/A motor. the motor that i got when i purchased the car was traded at mazda for a core charge. (saved me like a grand on the engine). The motor that they sent back to me was a rebuilt motor... the reason i thought it has a knock sensor is because the block has a small, threaded hole right above the first set of spark plug holes coming from the water pump.... here is a crude diagram:

_______________
| | o | | | | <knock sensor
| | | | | |
| | O '| | O | | <Spark plugs
| | | | | |
| | O '| | O | | < Spark plugs
| | | | | |


the way i've been thinking is that any core can be used with any type of engine from that series. am i right or am i going to have to have mazda send me another core? I'm really hoping that's not the case because they take like a month or so to get it back to you and i've got some stuff that this car just has to be ready for.