I just bought an 89 LB9 camaro and the passenger side coolant sensor connector is broken. With the key on I can touch it to the starter and I hear the relay click but the fan does not turn on.

Does this sensor only operate the fan or does the computer use it for fuel enrichment? The car runs rich and I was hoping this would kill two birds with one sensor. TIA

 

Only for the fan.

 

Thank you.

 

Yeah, that's the fan switch that grounds the green with white stripe wire and causes 12 volt sent to the relay by the big red wire to go to the fan positive down the other big wire that is black with a red stripe. That's if the relay is working right. There are several different fan switches that turn on the fan at a lower temp that are helpful. . Then if you switch the AC control on it should also ground out the relay and cause the same effect. If that doesn't work test the fan directly. If turning on the AC makes it work you just need the fan switch

 

you can wire in a switch inside the car and ground the other end of the wire and you can control that fan manually

 

I realized not long after I asked the question what was going on. This car was built with dual fans but somewhere along the line it was switched out for single. The AC was working not long ago so the PO decided cold air was more important than cooling for the fan.

I switched the connector to the fan (both fit the fan) and grounded out the temp sensor wire. I ordered a replacement connector and should be here today.

I did replace the coolant sensor in the intake. The car is much happier with a working sensor.

Thank you for the replies.

 

Excellent.

Fixing the original AUTOMATIC system, rather than REQUIRING intelligent human (yeah, an oxymoron, I know) intervention, is ALWAYS the better way to go. Allowing the OPTION of human intervention, intelligent or otherwise, might be OK, but REQUIRING it is a sure certain 100% ironclad guaranteed take it to the bank recipe for disaster SOMEDAY. Think, your wife or GF forgets it, your brother-in-law's cousin doesn't know about it, your kids get all wrapped up in whatever kids are doing behind the wheel these days instead of operating vehicles, and so forth. REQUIRING the user to flip a switch, and the result being a MELTDOWN if they don't, is just not a commonsensical approach to take to design.