Does the coolant temp sensor on my 99 Sentra affect the fuel injection?

Question

My wife's 99 Sentra has the GA16DE engine, and it sucks oil. We use ring seal regularly because it doesn't pay to hone and re-ring it. The ring seal keeps it from buring oil and hiccuping when accelerating. However, the plugs do get fouled and I change them regularly. The problem is that sometimes for no apparent reason the car won't start. It will turn over without firing for an eternity and floods. If I push the pedal to the floor I can get the EFI to stop feeding so much fuel and the cylinders dry out. Then I back off to 1/2 throttle, and very slowly it will start to hesitantly fire. Eventually I can coax it into running, but it slowly revs up and then runs perfectly smooth. Changing the plugs doesn't seem to help this problem. Someone told me that the engine coolant temp sensor can also cause fuel mixture problems. Is this true? Is it worth my time to try this fix?

Answer 1

The engine computer bases how much fuel the car needs by coolant temperature, so yes, this can have an effect. Most coolant sensors are under $20.00, so it would be worthwhile to replace it, to see if this helps.

Answer 2

For no apparent reason? You have an engine that's so worn out it shouldn't be running at all. If you have a bad temp sensor the injectors are going to be running extremely rich all the time.

Answer 3

Yes i believe it would. while you're at it see if you can find that vacumm leak(intake maybe) that is causing your massive oil consumption. you're rings shuldn't be shot already unless she's be driving around without an air filter for awhile