"Sending Unit"

Dear Fellow Tacoma Junkies and Addicts,

I have a temperature gauge that sporadically climbs to red hot. It usually does this after it has been run for a while, and the engine is shut off, and then it is turned back on. Obviously, I have ruled out that our Tacoma does not have a cooling problem. I know it is an electrical dilemma because the gauge only goes up there for a couple of seconds and then descends back to normal. Does it sound like the sending unit is the culprit? Please any input is appreciated. The problem is sporadic enough where it has just begun to start to bother me.

Thanks in advance,
Paul

 

if it is only the coolant gauge then I say yes, cheap enough to put one in to eliminate it.

 

My thoughts are the tacoma factory temp gauges are junk, mine reads dead center and is not even hooked up lol. Get you a scangauge or something of the sort. Just plugs right in to your obd2 port under the dash. Will display water temp, volts, rpm, speed as well as many others.. You can pull and clear codes with it as well. Well worth the money to keep a close eye on your engine vitals.

However if you want to check it out, on my 99 v6 there are 2 sending units for water temp. One on the front of the engine just behind the upper rad hose and one on the rear of the engine close to the firewall. The one for the gauge is the rear one, the front one is used for the ecu.

 

Word of caution: when my temp gauge wiring became faulty (bad ground) and caused the needle to peg intermittently, the truck was thrown into limp mode. Safety feature--it will shut itself off to save the what it thinks is an overheating engine. Plays hell when you're running down the interstate at 80 mph!