i just bought an electrical water temp gauge, i was wondering if there some way i can tap into the the ecu or someone in the car for it to read temp.

i used a wire tap and taped it into the coolant temp sensor but it pulled a check engine light on , and my car kept cutting off

i do have a thermostat that came with the gauge but i want to avoid drilling into my housing

 

I have the same issue you have - and I couldn't find the correct wire in the Haynes or Chilton's I've got. Anyone wanna chime in here?

 

No no no...you guys are really screwing up the coolant temp reading for the ECU. When you add an wire to the same ECU wire, you really screwing up the resistance reading for the ECU. The ECU is expecting an eletrical resistance value from one OEM coolant sensor and now it's getting an extra reading from a gauge. YOU WILL NEED TO PUT IN THE AFTERMARKET SENDER SOMEWHERE. There are two ways to do this.

1. Follow the upper radiator hose. The hose will end at this aluminum water neck. There you will see two coolant senders for the ECU. What you can do is remove the water neck and drill/tap/screw in the aftermarket temp sender that comes with your gauge somewhere on that water neck. This is hard to do since you will need to remove alot parts to take off the water neck. The following is a picture of that water neck.



2. Buy a upper radiator hose T. Ground the sender and run the wire to you gauge like the following picture.