Hello,

I recently bought a 1986 Toyota Pickup SR5 4x4 and have been doing some routine upkeep to make sure everything is in order. While changing the head gasket I pulled a wire from a sensor plug and I don't know what type of sensor it was from. I thought it was the temp senor but the temp gauge still seems to work (still takes time to warm up). Please let me know if you know what type of sensor I need to replace.

Thanks!
Gary

 

There's actually some controversy over exactly what that sensor does. Some trucks have it, some say it's for the AC, towing package, or auto transmission, but my 87' has that sensor and none of those options. I've seen other 87's that don't have it. FWIW i have mine disconnected and it runs the same. The sensor is discontinued anyway and not available in the aftermarket as far as i know.

 

It is a coolant temperature sensor. One of 3 I believe on most of our RE trucks.
Should be another one under the throttle body and then another on the back half of the intake manifold.

Read long ago that ones for the gauge, ones for the computer to see the regular running temp and ones for the warm up temp but in reality only guys that worked at Toyota in the 80s know