A while back my check engine light came on and I have been ignoring it for a while thinking it was realted to an exhaust leak that has been slowly developing at the connection between my header and y-pipe.

Last week while messing around in the engine compartment I noticed the wires are no longer connected to the temperature sender that is threaded into the side of the EGR valve.

I checked my shop manual and it indicates the EGR Valve temperature sender is a California only item (I bought the truck while living in So. Cal.). I have read about putting a resistor across the wires to fool the computer into thinking it is actually there.

My question is....does the temp sender do anything that would help gas mileage or is it (my guess) just emmissions related.

Do people that bought their trucks outside of California also have the temperature sender?

Can't buy the temp sender separate from the EGR Valve from Toyota so I'm searching the used market. Let me know if you have one for sale.

Bill

 

My Canadian 93 had the sender, but it was never connected and did not even have the other half of the plug to connect to. I removed it and gave it to another member on here and didn't notice any difference in my truck's driveability or gas mileage and I didn't get a CEL. I don't know if other US vehicles outside of Cali have them connected or not. So find a friendly Canadian and see if they'll part with their's.

If you want to try a resistor these are the values from the FSM. Maybe try somewhere in the middle of the range.

122 F - 64-97 ohms
212 F - 11-16 ohms
302 F - 2-4 ohms

I'm guessing the sender value is used to tell the computer when the engine is warmed up, as you don't want EGR on a cold engine.

 

I had the CEL for a year...finally added the resistor and the light went off...been running that way for a month or so now...doesn't seem to have any ill effects.

 

Thanks for the help guys. I'll give the resistor trick a try.

 

I Bought a 15 Ohm resister this afternoon and I'm installing it tonight. We'll see if that does the trick. The real question is.....Does a constant unchanging 15 ohm value in place of the former temperature sender tell the computer that the engine is acting in a way that it really is not? As in, for example, the computer sees 15 ohms and thinks the engine is cold when it is actually warmed up? Comments?

 

I bought an oem EGR temp sensor from the dealer. They're not cheap. But, you can definitely get one separate from an EGR valve, flex pipe, modulator, etc. Trust me, I know.

 

Bill - I have one. Show me a pic of it (I think I know what it is - need to confirm) and I'll get mine to you.

 

Mike, sent you an email with the pic.

Well so far a 15 ohm resistor in place of the EGR temperature sender has cleared the CEL. We'll see how long that lasts. I would still rather have a functioning temp sender in there but reading the FSM about the EGR valve doesn't give any insight into if the temperature reading the sender gives the computer does anything. The EGR valve appears to open and close according to the temperature of the engine coolant and the throttle position not the exhaust gas temp.