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I broke a coolant tee fitting while doing an oil change. While replacing the hose, I noticed the elbow does not have an electrical connection (sure can't find it in the harness) but appears to be a coolant temp sensor? Is this normal to not connect it? I've seen posts where they replaced it with an elbow that has a bleeder screw and some that used a different hose (deleted the elbow)... what is best practice? 2012 S with an automatic. I started this job a couple months ago and contracted COVID, just starting the repair now and forgot what I did during disassembly. The picture is not my car but very similar. Also, the car is now 10 years old, would this be a good time to replace the coolant hoses with silicone since I'm in there? Is there a preferred kit? Thanks!
That sensor is a retrofit. What happened is the original temp sensor in the thermostat would fail, so when it did they replaced it with an inline one.
Later on I believe there was a recall to replace the thermostat, again due to temperature sensor corrosion. The new thermostat has a working sensor, so when the thermostat was replaced they used that one and then just abandoned the inline one in-place.
You can just leave it. The only problem is sometimes they start to leak at that sensor, in which case you have two options: either glue it in place with some silicone, or replace that upper hose with a one-piece one that doesn't have the sensor.
Thanks! I had the entire job complete and couldn't find the connector to that sensor! Took everything apart again to search. Nope. Put it back together and it ran fine, no issues. By the way, was 2012 a mid-year change over? My 2012 seems to not match diagrams and the service manual here and there... yay me!
