Temperature gauge died on a 96 Ford Explorer.

[tfisher]

My temp guage died on my 96 Ford Explorer XLT, anyone know if it's an easy fix?

 

[Sams01XplrSprt]

welcome and that sux bout ur temp gauge not working

 

[Verno]

What exactly died, the guage or the sending unit?
My guess would be the temperature sending unit has failed. These are inexpensive and easy to change.

 

[tfisher]

Thanks for the reply, I believe it's the sending unit/ sensor. Can't find where it's located? Any assistance on location would be greatly appreciated!

 

[BrooklynBay]

Welcome to this forum! I've moved your thread to the stock 95-01 section. Ground the wire on the sending unit to see if the gauge jumps up to the hot region. This will tell you if it's a problem with the sending unit or the gauge.

 

[96eb96]

Thanks for the reply, I believe it's the sending unit/ sensor. Can't find where it's located? Any assistance on location would be greatly appreciated!

It is above the thermostat, near the black elbow. It has ONE wire not two (that is the one for the computer). It is a common failure item on a 96.

 

[tfisher]

Thanks guys!

Much appreciative to all for the advice, it will be this weekend's project!

 

[96eb96]

Much appreciative to all for the advice, it will be this weekend's project!

If the thermostat was never changed I suggest installing a new ford thermostat too.

 

[diegopuente]

for check the gauge connect a 10 ohms resistence between earth and the connector of the sender(first disconnect it), the gauge must be in hot and the ligth of check gauges on, if this works the gauge is ok, for check the gauge connect a ohmmeter(multimeter in ohms) to the sender, a terminal in earth and the other to the terminal of the sender with a screw, in cold the sender must be in 73 ohms and in hot in 10 ohms, if this fails the sender is bad and must be replaced, but if you change for a duralast tu25 (autozone) it will never works, maybe if you try with an original (motorcraft) with the correct values, check the autozone page for repair your explorer, the sender is a temperature switch in engine management

 

[kenv267]

ford thermostat vs aftermarket thermostat

If the thermostat was never changed I suggest installing a new ford thermostat too.

Should I install a FORD OEM thermostat or can i go with an Autozone replacement? temp gauge will not work and my guess is thermostat is stuck open position as replaced sender and still will not work.

 

[dustinjorge]

Go with the Motorcraft part... the major difference is in the air bleed hole/valve... see the one below has a 'ball bearing' type bleed valve, this is good.

I went through 3 of these (below) at one point, with the cheesy bleed valve as shown in the pic below. They tend to stick and not allow air to escape, so I constantly had fluctuations in temp and the thermostat didn't open at the right time. Replacing it with the better Motorcraft thermostat fixed the issue.