"Jay & Dana" <jay&dana@telus.net> wrote:
: Just picked up my CTS from the dealer today. The rocket scientists that
: work there (no offense to any rocket scientists on the list) told me that
: the reason this sensor malfunctioned was because of the 180 T-stat I
: installed a couple months ago.
: I said "hmmm, maybe I should put the 195 back in." NOT !
: -Jay
: BTW: The new sensor did come with something on the threads that looks like a
: type of sealant, so I shouldn't have to worry about that.
Yeah, you ran that poor coolant temp sensor too cold and it
gummed up the solid state electronics inside... ;-) Sometimes
I wonder if the dealer shmucks who say that stuff are actually
bright people who are trying to scare the common man into
leaving their vehicles alone, or if they are actually the
way they come across. Given that they do (mostly warranty) work
on my vehicles from time to time I am *hoping* it is the former,
but some part of me fears otherwise. :-) Actually, the techs
and such that I have dealt with at my dealer have been
pretty good so far, but then again, I do tend to avoid the
service department when possible so I don't exactly have a
huge amount of contact with them. The service manager actually
just retired or something, he was decent, but the guy who
replaced him (he used to be a tech and must have gotten a
promotion) is EXCELLENT. I've been in there a couple of times
since he took over and have been extremely pleased with the
service I have received so far. Its amazing what a difference
one person can make...
Heh - got a little off track there, sorry. :-) I just wanted
to mention for future reference, I'm not sure what you paid at
the dealer, but I have purchased coolant temp sensors at
Autozone before, and they are less than $10 there. The trick
with Autozone though is that they call one of the sensors a
"coolant temp sensor" and the other one they call a "coolant
temp switch". Never mind that they are both variable resistors
which output a variable signal depending on the temperature
(there is nothing "switch-like" about them)... The problem is
I don't recall now wether the "switch" is the PCM sensor or
the gauge sensor. Its not a huge deal since I can just look
at it - if its got 2 wires its the pcm one - 1 wire and its
the gauge. Just thought I would mention that in case you go
in there for one and they come up with nothing for your '97 -
they might be calling it a switch instead of a sensor. Just
another parts store hoop ya gotta jump through. :-)
--
-Jon-
.-- Jon Steiger ---- jon@dakota-truck.net or jon@jonsteiger.com --.
| 1970 Barracuda - 1990 Dakota 'vert - 1992 Ram 4x4 - 1996 Dakota |
| 1996 Intruder 1400 - 1996 Kolb FireFly - 2001 Ram QC 3500 CTD |
`------------------------------------ http://www.jonsteiger.com --'
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