Summary:
CEL coolant sensor
Coolant sensor definitely screwed
Was sent a sender....
Sender doesn't fit the sender harness but fits the sensor harness... (only reason I thought to try was the originals looked color coded.)







Now I'm doubting everything by this point. So I Google away and dig through the forums. This lead me to a lot of confusion.

Brown connector with red/white is almost always the sender. Gray with green/red and Black is almost always the sensor. On this truck both of those is true. For what was already hooked up! But according to the diagrams they were in the wrong positions.....


Here its showing the front sensor as just that a sensor... the rear as a sender..... on my truck they were opposite.... is this even the right diagram?

Now I'm flipping out because my brand new sender only plugs into the sensor and when plugged in seems to actually be working as a sensor. (Or at least no trouble codes). So uhh. Now I'm confused as to what I should do. Atm I have a sender in a sensor plug in a sender position. And a sender in a sender plug in the sensor position if I'm reading everything right.

These aren't wide band multi purpose are they? Because I'm getting actual feedback from the gauges and my OBD that appear to be monitoring correctly.

 

The hole they go into doesn't matter. They are both getting the same coolant flow. Plug the sender into the connector that fits it and you should be good.

 

Not that simple. This is really hard to explain and the real issue imo.

I have a new sender. But I actually need a new sensor. I tried to Install my new sender just because. Well it won't plug into the sender connector. Oddly enough it does plug into the sensor connector. (My sensor was completely severed and I was staring at the plugs anyway.

What I can tell this "sender" is functioning as a sensor. It is a little different looking than the OEM sender I was going to replace (see pictures). Soooooooo idk what to do now.

Before anyone asks. i am absolutely positive what the connectors are. The ones from the harness i mean. I for sure have the sender in the sensor connector (fits like a glove at that). And I for sure have a sender in the sender connector now. I have 2 senders. No fault codes. And from what I can tell... it is functioning... I think anyway. The temp gauge is going up and down like you might expect. The PCM is sensing the coolant being cold and heating up as I drive. (Cold starts at 80 degrees heats up to roughly 185 for operating temp).

Now I'm leaning towards this is actually a sensor that looks like a sender. And that It i want to replace my sender i might be in trouble finding a proper connector 😂

 

The sender connector will have a red/white wire and a black/white wire, Ford used red/white wire since 1995 for temp senders, runs to instrument cluster temp gauge

ECT Sensor connector will have a grey/red wire and a light green/red wire, grey/red wire is shared with most other sensors, i.e. Air temp, Throttle, EGR, power steering, its the "reference" wire, green wire runs back to computer

Above is true............IF............they are original connectors, at 21 years old some one may have spliced in a new/used connector if one was broken, so if you don't have those 4 wire colors then wiring HAS BEEN altered, and maybe the connector as well

DY-1144 is a sender

ECT sensor should have a cone shaped tip, seen on the left in your picture, the other two in the picture are senders
But that's motorcraft(Ford) part, 3rd party can be any shape they want, lol

 

Okay I'm gonna post pictures because we are all on different pages lol


This is what we are calling a Sender harness. It has a Sender in it (the rusty crap looking one with the cylindrical head). It does NOT fit my new Sender. It is not Interchangeable

This is what we are calling a Sensor harness. It HAD a cone shaped sensor in it (as pictured above). It fits my new Sender Motocraft as pictured above aswell.


CORRECT sender and sensor units fitted to those wires.

and as you have confirmed CORRECT Sender from Motocraft.

The issue: the NEW Sender only plugs into the SENSOR harness connector.

The NEW SENDER is functioning as a SENSOR.

The NEW SENDER will not plug into the SENDER connector. As shown in the pictures its a completely different fitting that for some reason matches the SENSOR.

Forget why I plugged it in forget that it's working. I wanna know what the heck parts i order now for a sensor and sender. Should I try the Duratec version???

 

If it plugs into sensor connector(grey/red) then its a sensor not a sender, regardless of packaging label and tip shape

The sensor is 5volt
Sender is 12volt
So not interchangeable, so connectors are different

If you Google: ford parts
It will have a list of Ford parts sites, use your VIN to ID vehicle and look up parts, temp sensors/senders are listed in Cooling not engine parts usually

 

awesome. I appreciate it. With this piece in particular it seems that most part store are labeling them kind of... well. Both. Its a little frustrating to say the least. Especially since I went out of the way for a real ford part and not something cheap lol.. Genuinely appreciate the help

 

Yes, this has always been an issue since fuel injection and the addition of an ECT sensor while still using the Temp sender for dash board gauge

Oil pressure senders and coolant temp senders have been around since the 1930's at least
I guess the coolant temp sender was not precise enough for fuel injection and Choke settings during warm up, that's pretty much the only time its used, during warm up

But "they" certainly could have made the ECT sensor's hole/threads different since they were starting from square one, but connector is different, lol

 

actual Sender for 2.5 lima

The other even though labeled sender as well has a bulb tip. Issue resolved thanks!

 

It sucks going through all that confusion but glad you have now gotten it all resolved!