coolant temp sensor question

[Stringer]

Can anyone tell me if it's ok to drive with this disconnected? Would i be right in guessing that this sends the message to the Cold Start VALVE to stay open? In other words when there is an open circuit, the car will assume that its very cold and constantly require a rich mixture?

What about if i bridged the two cables and made zero resistance? Would it assume the opposite and go completely lean?

thanks for your help, all of you
m in Beirut

 

[markjay]

Can't answer specifically regarding your car, but my previous car had two separate senders, one feeding the ECU, the other the temperature gauge on the instrument cluster. Disconnecting the latter was not a problem, but disconnecting the former would cause the (petrol) engine to run too rich as you described (so not a good idea).

 

[Stringer]

the thing is, i think that's what i 've got ANYWAY. I fear my engine is running too rich which is coking up the plugs and guzzling gas. When i disconnected this cable, the car started fine (as it's on the rich setting). What i was thinking is drive it around as it is to see if all the same symptoms persist (when it gets to about 80 degrees it starts missing for example). If so, then i can assume that i either have a faulty CTS - or a faulty Cold Start Valve.
BTW, another idea i thought was to disable the CSV altogether. I guess i could do that by disconnecting that too, no?
thanks

 

[ray_hennig]

the thing is, i think that's what i 've got ANYWAY. I fear my engine is running too rich which is coking up the plugs and guzzling gas. When i disconnected this cable, the car started fine (as it's on the rich setting). What i was thinking is drive it around as it is to see if all the same symptoms persist (when it gets to about 80 degrees it starts missing for example). If so, then i can assume that i either have a faulty CTS - or a faulty Cold Start Valve.
BTW, another idea i thought was to disable the CSV altogether. I guess i could do that by disconnecting that too, no?
thanks

Have you got a multimeter? If so, measure the resistance of the sender when cold, warm and hot. If I recall correctly, it should be around 2K Ohms cold and 300 Ohms hot - don't take my word for that, do a search and you'll find a graph of the temperature versus resistance.

RayH