R Xplicit

i have had a lingering on and off check engine light for about 10 days now, and i finally got a chance to check it last night at my friends' apartment. it flashed 9 times. ok. simple.. look in the service manual, and it is listed as the water thermosensor. uh oh...i hope that this is not bad. i am wondering if this directly affects the temp guage in the car. it has been working properly, and since the FMIC install and the reloaction of the a/c condenser, it has only read a slight bit warm on 2 or 3 occasions.

am i fucked. have i been running my car hot like a jackass, and fubared someting up. i can not afford another engine. i think that i am just panicing.

please someone tell me what they know about this sensor. i have an electric water temp guage on the way, and am not driving the car today because of this new found knowledge. i am hoping that the sensor went bad or got screwed up because the coolant was slightly lower than the sensor position inn the filler neck.

PLEASE SHARE ADVICE OR EXPERIENCE!!!

Street King

It is an older car, maybe it was it's time to go out. You won't know till you replace it. Replace it and go from there. That part shouldn't be too expensive.

P'cola FD

Louis, calm down. There are two separate H20 temperature sensors in the car. One is the water thermosenser that tells the ecu what is going on, and one is the sensor that tells the fans when to come on. The one that is malfunctioning is for the ecu. It's malfulctioning will only make your car run leaner. I'm not sure of all the causes for it to malfunction other than age. It is located on the back of the waterpump housing, right below the crossover tube from the y-pipe (or where the tube would be if you had a stock IC). The two sensors are vertically aligned, and I think the one you are looking for is on the top. Take it out and do the test via the FSM. Good luck.

paw140

Just because your sensor is bad doesn't mean that your car will overheat. Thats probably what caused your temp gauge to go up past the half way mark the other day. I'm not sure about FD's, but on most cars, a bad water temp sensor will just screw up the fuel mixture. If it tells the computer that the engine is cold, your mixture will be too rich. If it tells your computer some bogus temp that is out of range (thus the check engine light), your computer will probably just go to some default value. Did you notice any strange behavior on your AFR gage?

R Xplicit

p'cola and paw140....

thanks. i know of the location of the sensor, and am calling the mazda dealer right now. i did notice that the car is reading leaner, funny how that works isn't it. i mean, yesterday, my car stalled out once. scared me, really. well, i guess i will take it from there unless anyone else has any input.

thanks again guys....