Paging Ford Dealer Techs
 

Not Cobra related
98 Ford Contour SVT
Recently I had the water pump belt tensioner seize which whiped out the belt while I was in my nightly commute. I caught it before any apparent damage, other than getting hot (gauge burried). Today upon inspection I noticed the whipping fragments of the shredded belt had stripped all the insulation off of about 1/2" of the wire and severed several of the wire strands of the single wire to the temprature sending unit.
Today the gauge went to full hot as soon as I turned on the key with the wire attached, it did the same with the receptical removed from the sending unit. I thought there was a problem with the wire so I spliced in a new piece, I cut off the receptical that slips onto sending unit and soldered and spliced in a new piece of wire. After reconnecting it I get the same results (gauge full hot). The cooling system indicator is illuminated but the system is full of coolant (added some) and both fans are operational. The check engine light had lit up when the overheating occured and had to be reset yesterday after it sat overnight. I cleared the code, the fan light went off and the temp gauge was working OK. Now the fan light is on aaaand the gauge goes full hot when the key is switched on.

Need some ideas..................

Thanks
Rick

Solved..back on the road.

So, what was it Rick?

It was the Temp sending unit. It must have gotten damage when it overheated. The PCM registered that the coolant got to 264 degrees. The stud in the center of the sending unit wiggled when I compared it with the new one. Installed the new one and all is well. The coolant light was being caused by a temporary air lock. Once the thermostat opend anf coolant began to flow it went out. I refilled the recovery bottle and the commute today was like having an old friend back. Everything seems to be ok. Glad I had synthetic oil in it (always do).