Car died on me. Showing Code 15

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Jul 30, 2012 | 06:16 AM
  #1  
Saturday I decided to take my Camaro for a cruise. As I was backing out of the garage the Service Engine Soon light came on. I drove the car to my parents house, (maybe a 1/2 mile away). The car ran fine on the way there. I parked it and it sit for about 2 hours. When I went to leave the SES light came on again as I was backing out of their drive way. Again it ran fine. When I got about halfway home I stopped at a stop sign. Just as I went to accelerate it died. I tried restarting it and it would turn over, but wouldn't fire up. I had it towed home and let it sit in the garage overnight. I went out Sunday morning and tried to start it again. It took 2 or 3 tries and it did fire up, but it idled pretty bad and had a really bad gas smell. I shut it down and did the paperclip trick to see what code it was giving. It gave me a code 15 - Low temperature indicated at engine coolant temp sensor. Would this cause the problem that I'm having?

Thanks....
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Jul 30, 2012 | 11:00 PM
  #2  
Re: Car died on me. Showing Code 15
Yes, that sensor is telling your computer that the engine is cold when in reality it could be 220*. IIRC, sometimes they can tell the computer that the engine is like -100* and crazy things like that, so the computer tries to load it up on fuel (like it does on a cold start, but way richer), to the point of drowning it out - explaining your rough idle and horrible gas smell. Most likely, the computer thinks it is 0* or below outside and thats the cause of your troubles.
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Jul 31, 2012 | 09:44 AM
  #3  
Re: Car died on me. Showing Code 15
Thanks for the replay. I was expecting it to show me a code for the O2 sensor or something fuel related. I was kinda dumfounded when I saw it was a temp sensor. Thanks again!
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