85 Toyota Camry Water Temperature Switch (A/T)

[bbruneau]

What the heck is this? I have a shop manual and it is in the diagrams but no mention, no tests. This switch has a broken wire. Does it really affect the automatic transaxle? Could it be the reason my transaxle destroyed itself on the road last August? Is this switch important to the function of the car? Additionally the switch seems to be defective, ie, there is insulation around the connector but the whole unit is shorted out (complete continuity with my resistance meter)
The code stamped on the hex screw part is 6E-20 50B
The book also seems to call it a Water Thermo Sensor
Any help would be greatly appreciated and I think would demonstrate you are a Toyota guru

Bill Bruneau, Willits CA

[Mike Gerber]

If it's the switch I'm thinking of it keeps the transmission out of overdrive until the engine, via the coolant temperature, reaches a certain preset temperature. Once that temperature is reached, it allows the transmission to shift in to overdrive. It's function is to speed engine warmup by increasing the engine RPM's when cold.

Mike

[Bodar]

i dotn understand the poll

[bbruneau]

I finally paid for an answer, and others may find this interesting:
The switch is important. You need to fix it asap. The thermo switch controls fan operation. When it gets hot the resistance goes away and the wire goes to ground turning on the fan. Short the wire to something metal or battery ground and see if the fan comes on

The best replacement is a factory Toyota part. I know they are more (I have a 86 pickup trust me) but they are correct and you never have problems with them. The ATF fluid goes to the radiator to be cooled. If the fan doesn't come on when the thermo switch goes to ground the ATF may get too hot and the transmission could overheat.

After a few calls I found two part numbers for you. The difference is the production date of the car. With a VIN number any Toyota dealer can tell you which one it is. The numbers are:

8942815-011

89428320-10

Sorry I couldn't give you the exact number but without knowing the production date the answer is these two. The first number is early production and the second is later. Get this part at Toyota to avoid problems. It's more expensive but the thing will work correctly and you won't have anymore issues.

[Our Ukiah parts man says (with 26 years of experience behind this answer) that when a car is right on the divide as mine is, of course, that it applies to the later part number, ie, 8942815-011

[bbruneau]

Bodar, I am new to this stuff but figured that if people could not answer my question they could at least give me an opinion as to how important this might be. Since I am new to Toyotas, I find that valuable. Quite different than Volvos to be sure