Hello.

I have a 1998 Accord EX-R I recently purchased, 2.3L 4 banger. Quite zippy and sounds beautiful no clicks or rattles coming from the engine at 169000. My 94 5th gen ran beautifully and I sold it at 256000 and the person who bought it went cross country with 2 times over again with the simple directions: change oil and check coolant regularly.

Anyways, I'm tuning up this new Accord and while I was trying to diagnose while the temperature gauge at the cluster wasn't reading properly, I replaced the thermostat and the thermostat that was in it was fine, the problem persisted and I learned that this model has 3 different temperature sensors. I discovered that the one that plugs into the block that has just one wire running to it was the sensor at fault.

When I went to replace the sensor the connector on the wire literally fell apart in my hands. I'm assuming this wire runs straight to the gauge cluster, and I'm pretty damn sure it's the wire that's causing this problem. The problem I'm having is I have no idea what this wire is called or where to purchase a new one. I've included pictures to give you an idea of what I'm talking about.

Also, the cooling fan DOES come on if I run the engine while it's stationary at around 3000 RPMs. The vehicle shows no signs of overheating what so ever so mechanically it's sound but I need an accurate temperature gauge on my vehicle.

Thanks for all the help as well guys, I'm a frequent browser of these forums.

 

Also, the vehicle is throwing a primary O2 sensor code on the CEL as well as a VSS code. The O2 sensor shouldn't have anything to do with the actual temperature the vehicle is operating at would it?

 

You can splice a new bullet connector onto that wire that will fit the sender (what you have pictured is the gauge sender, different than the sensor which feeds the ECM). Standard bullet connectors from the hardware store will work.

Regarding the O2 sensor it will not affect operating temperature, which is dictated by the thermostat. Are you sure the thermostat you got is the factory temperature? They make ones with different heat ranges.