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Feel free to laugh and-or say "don't you ever learn?"
Last Sunday I got a 1995 Mercury Sable (twin of the Ford Taurus) for $300. I went out of town to a big city to get it. It had a dead battery but with a new one I got from Autozone for $75 it fired right up (and the battery hasn't drained since even when running the headlights so there are no alternator issues). It drove it home with no issues, which was about 110 miles and about 90 minutes at freeway speeds.
However I noticed that the temperature gauge isn't working, it's firmly all the way on cold. I figured if it ran hot I'd surely notice something odd on the way home driving that far, but it did fine. It's done fine since, but I did manage to add about a gallon of coolant to it upon returning home (I didn't check it before leaving). I've checked it daily since, it seems fine no issues. I've checked the oil and it's not milky, the exhaust has no white smoke, and it runs smoothly. I also will be having the oil changed and I'll have them check for leaks while they're doing that.
Still, I'd prefer a working temperature gauge. How easy of a fix is that? Is there some other way to monitor engine temperature until it's fixed? (Also the odometer only shows 105,000 miles so it's tempting to think I could massage quite a good amount of mileage out of this, although I also thought that with the prior 2 cars and they didn't work out so I'm assuming nothing regardless.)
For the record, our taxes are getting done today and we should be getting about $5600 back so we'll be getting something else, this is just to get us by until then and to also allow us time to get something good vs just grabbing any old thing in haste once the money is here (I'd like a Pontiac Vibe as I posted earlier). Our old Altima, the salvage yard gave me $200 for it, it's gone.
Many temp gauges don't accurately reflect coolant temp, however, check around the thermostat for the sending unit, it will look something like this. It's a thin little wire that can easily be broken, corroded, etc, and the temp sensor itself is cheap. As long as the radiator isn't boiling out through the overflow tank or blowing white smoke like you said, then you're probably ok. If you have one of those point-and-shoot temp guns, you can get a good reading from the upper radiator hose.
Disconnect the temp gauge sending unit wire.
Use a ohm meter to get the value on a cold engine. Initial resistance starting point.
Start the engine and let it warm up. Check the value again. It should be different than your cold reading.
If it isn't or the ohm load shows OL or no change it's broken.
For two wire sensor leads use one multimeter lead on each sensor prong.
On a single wire temp sensor red lead on temp sensor black lead on engine ground.
If temp sensor reads good, test the wire from sensor back to PCM. There should be a way to make the dash gauges go in a self test mode by turning the key on off and possible holding a trip button or some button on the dash
Overheating kills the engine in no time so you don't want to wait until it happens. Does the fan come on? If it doesn't you are good for now. Here is another idea. Get an OBDII scanner and download an app. I have one with wifi that pairs with my iphone nicely. You can read the coolant temperature and a whole lot of other stuff in real time.
Yes, I suppose I should do a YouTube search for "change temperature sensor taurus" or such so I can see where it's located. As it is your tips, helpful and appreciated though they truly are, are a bit over my head at the moment.
I have been anal about keeping my eye on things. Last night I double-checked and yes I was able to add SOME coolant, but only about 1/8th or something of a gallon, this a good 3 days since the last time I topped it off after getting home with it. As I said earlier, I've seen no boiling over in the overflow tank or any white smoke, and it's always ran smoothly both at startup and as it warms up. Still, I'll take a look at some YouTube videos and/or ff it's not crazy expensive to do so I'll have this fixed in the shop when I get the oil changed.
I might have something good on my hands right now with this. It's pleasantly surprised me how very well it's done in the days I've had it. Besides easily coming home a good 110 miles and 90 minutes or so with no issues, it's done great locally ever since as well. It's kind of ruined me against small cars though, I've noticed it's much smoother on those bumpy roads than the Toyota Corolla (and especially that Altima when I had it) and now I don't know if I can go back to small cars, bumps in those are so painful while in this they're far more "muted." If only I could afford a Toyota Avalon, oh well.
If you can locate your upper radiator hose, then you can locate your thermostat housing. If you can locate your thermostat housing, then you can locate the temp sensor.
I doubt an oil change shop would mess with it. First, they don't know jack about troubleshooting. Next, they wouldn't have your part.
Are you topping off your overflow tank, or the radiator? Regardless, neither should be all full. The coolant needs room to expand as it heats, so if you rad and puke tank are all full, then it's going to be pushed out of the emergency vent on the puke tank.
99% of the time, the issue is the "sending unit" on the engine. It unscrews like a spark plug, provided it's not stuck bad, it's an easy fix. Frequently these are made mostly of brass, so you need a good 6-point socket or wrench to change it, your brother-in-law's adjustable wrench is not OK for this job.
Go get some PB Blaster at Walmart, or if you can find Kroil around your parts, get a can of that. Put some on the temp sending unit, on the threads, and go through several heatup/cooldown cycles before trying to take it off.
Of course your symptoms are also consistent with the wire simply being off the sending unit, are you sure the sensing wire is plugged in?
This is actually pretty common, an easy fix, yeah, you do want to fix it ASAP, no, there are not any really practical ways to monitor coolant temp without a gauge.
I agree with most that oil change "grease monkeys" are unlikely to be your best bet if you are not going to DIY.
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