hello, i have a 1992 firebird and lately its been hard to start in the mornings when its sat all night... it'll take the third turn of the key to get it started... and then it hesitates untill its warmed up... maybe a gas problem... and today i was getting code 14.. but my temp sensor in the car never went past 165? if anyone has any idea on what the problem is it would be greatly appriciated.. thanks (car is stock 3.1 v6, 101,000 miles, cold air intake, new plugs, wires, teemp sensor by intake, egr valve, 02 sensor in exhaust) thanks again

 

Code 14 is "coolant sensor high temperature indicated". That explains your hard starting and poor performance til the engine warms up. The sending unit for the gauge is seperate from the ECT sensor for the engine management system. The ECT sensor is located at the front of the intake manifold. It threads into the manifold just to the side of the thermostat housing on TBI cars and into the front of the manifold just below the thermostat housing on TPI cars. It has two wires, one yellow and one black, connected to it.

If this were a code 13, I would expect you to find corroded terminals in the connector, causing high resistance and low temperature readings. Since it's a code 14, it means that the resistance through the circuit is lower than it should be which may be caused by a short to ground in the yellow wire or the wires shorted together. It's more likely just a bad sensor. You can test the sensor for resistance. It should read about 3,400 ohms at 70 degrees(cold engine) and about 180 ohms at 220 degrees(hot engine).

 

see what gets me is i just replaced that sensor maybe two weeks aggo (oreily's) trying to fix a weird idle... i just went outside... started the car with it plugged in and my fan turned on immidiatly... same with unplugged... is there anything else i should check? thanks for your help btw

 

The ECM will activate the fan if the ECT sensor reads either high or low. It does this as a fail-safe to prevent engine overheating. The ECM doen't have any default logic for the ECT. There is no other way for the ECM to know coolant temp and coolant temp is a key component to fuel delivery(warm-up enrichment). Especially on engine start. Since you already replaced the sensor, I would start now by testing the sensor for resistance to verify that it's reading okay. Then, if you had a scan tool you could use it to see what temperature the ECM is seeing. Without a scanner, you'll just have to check the circuits between the sensor and the ECM to be sure you don't have a short circuit. One quick method is to disconnect the ECM and carefully test ECT resistance at the ECM connector. By carefully, I mean don't force the test probes into the ECM connector terminals or you'll damage them. Best to backprobe the terminals.