Air Temp. Sensor Mod - 91 Tercel - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

JoeDirtMcD3 · 05-02-2005, 09:55 PM

Well, my dad gave in and bought a car for my sister on Saturday. A 1991 Toyota Tercel in kinda crappy condition. It has rear bumper damage and it burns oil. We did a compression check and the first or fourth cylinder is low. We will eventually tear it apart to examine the pistons, block, and head.

My question is about the sensor that plugs into the side of the air filter enclosure. I read somewhere yesterday about modding the wires to that temp sensor with a switch or something that would tell the ECU the air was cold and advance the timing - boosting HP. I can't seem to find the article again. I happened on this sensor because I wanted to find out what type of air filter a 91 Tercel used, so I opened up the enclosure and there it was. My PCs CPU fan is a Thermaltake temp controlled fan and I wanted it to run at full speed constantly, so i cut the sensor off and soldered the wires together. So to make the ECU think the air was cold would i just cut the sensor off the wires and leave them apart?

Also, I had some BMW 4x100s at my friends house and I put them on. Whenever the car goes over bumps, the fenders scrape the tires. The fenders are effed up from the accident this person was in so I am gonna have to fix that crap before my sister gets back from college. Sometimes bein' the younger brother sucks. Besides, girls (for the most part) don't give a shit about how a car runs as long as it looks pretty. I need to take the BMW logo center caps off soon cuz that is just wrong. Thanks for the help.

Paseo15psi · 05-02-2005, 10:41 PM

Almost every BMW is RWD, so I'm betting that the wheel offset is wrong and that is why you rub. +40 offset is best on the Tercel/Paseo platform. As for the sensor mod, sorry, I try to leave all my sensors funtional.

tercelsuperfast · 05-03-2005, 03:17 AM

Why did you want your fan to run all the time? The air temp trick tells the ecu to send more fuel, but without actually more air, it wouldn't do anything.

JoeDirtMcD3 · 05-03-2005, 06:22 AM

About the tires, I know they're probably not the right offset, but it doesnt matter because they look much nicer altogether. "Anything will fit, the problem is how much time and money you want to put in to make it work."

I thought the sensor was a temperature sensor, not a sensor that measured the flow of air. Would'nt it have to be closer to the intake port of the air cleaner box to do any accurate airflow measuring anyways?

The reason I wanted my CPU fan to run full on constantly is because I overclock and the temp sensor never could get the fan to run at the full 5000RPM it was rated at. Even with the sensor gone, my mobo readout of the fan's speed is 4800ish.