Car 54? Where Are You? Sitting In Your Driveway Overheating, You Nitwit Because You Forgot to Add Engine Coolant

Damn! I got car problems once again and I just fixed this crap not too long ago. 

Anyways…..It all started a few weeks back when my brother and I had just finished up grocery shopping for the house and as he was parking the car we heard a ding!

The check engine light sign had illuminated on the dashboard along with a lightning bolt which indicates a problem with the electronic throttle system as well. I did "the infamous key fob trick" and received a P0118 code. 

The P0118 code means that the engine coolant temperature sensor circuit is receiving high input. Now I don't know what the hell that means so I had to do a some searching into what was going on with my ride. 

At first, I thought I had did something wrong because I had just added antifreeze to my car on account of the levels being below minimum. 

I was thinking that, maybe, I had purchased some bad antifreeze because everything was running well before the code. 

First thing, I did was check my coolant reservoir. 

I removed the cap and looked inside of it to check the coolant for any debris or air pockets. Everything seemed well there but I wanted to be certain that there was no air in the system. 

I live by the"it's better to be safe then sorry" moto.

Over the years, I've learned that if you catch a problem early, it won't cost you as much but if wait around, that problem might cost you everything.

The next thing I did was squeeze and massage the upper radiator hose while paying close attention to any noises that might come from the engine coolant reservoir.

WARNING!!!! NEVER OPEN THE CAP ON YOUR ENGINE COOLANT RESERVOIR WHEN YOUR VEHICLE'S HOT. Always make sure that your vehicle has cooled down before doing so.

Everything checked out well on that end. I put the coolant cap back on and ran the vehicle. I turned the heater on to see if everything was working like it should and it was. 

The vehicle ran very well. I even ran the ac for awhile and it was in working order also so I eliminated the thought of any air being in the system. 

I turned my attention to the actual ECT (Engine Coolant Temperature) sensor itself. 

I looked at the ECT sensor connecter checking for any corrosion on the terminals. Then I checked the wiring for any frays in it and everything checked out fine there so the next step was getting the problematic sensor out. 

I checked out a few videos online to get a feel on how to change out the sensor correctly. All I needed was the sensor and a 19mm deep socket so I headed down to the auto store to pick those things up.

I waited until the vehicle had cooled down and began working on it. 

Unbolting it was easy but I made quite the mess with the engine coolant so make sure you have something to catch the coolant when it comes pouring out. Only a little bit of the coolant spilled out on the ground while the majority of it landed all over the plastic shield at the bottom.

I hurried up and inserted the new ECT sensor inside the engine block and orientated it exactly how the old one was in there. I didn't tighten it all the way to the engine block because the other one wasn't. 

The sensor had some orange Loctite thread sealer around it so I don't have to ever worry about it coming loose. I plug the connector back onto it, disconnected the negative battery to clear the code and voila!

Everything was fixed? Wrong! 

When I started up the car, the check engine light was still on for some strange reason so I got out and double-checked everything. 

I decided to disconnect both positive and negative cables where I discovered some flaky material all over the battery posts. I also noticed some corrosion on the positive battery cable. 

I cleaned up the corrosion the best way that I could because I didn't have a wire brush handy. I also cleaned up the battery posts and hooked it all back up again. 

I started the engine back up and the code was gone. 

I came back the following day and ran the engine until it was all warmed up and again no codes were thrown.

Not sure what caused the ECT sensor to fail but from my understanding the engine coolant temperature sensor is a variable thermistor which means that during cold operations, the sensor will send out a higher voltage. 

As the car gets warmed up, the voltage is supposed to go down which the old sensor didn't do. It just kept on sending out high voltage readings which caused the PCM to throw a check engine light. 

The only thing I need to do now is clean the engine grounds on the car but I'm going to wait until the weather's a little warmer out this way before I do that. 

It's been almost 2 weeks later and I'm happy to report that the car's been "purring like a cat in heat" and there are no more codes to report at this time.