Pictured below, you will see a silver, slinky-looking coil thing. This is a piece of wire that goes from the temp sensor probe in the radiator to my fan controller. its a solid piece of bare wire. as you can see, its a bit too long and has a lot of slack in it. for the sake of keeping things looking reasonably clean in there, i would like to cut it to size and re-solder it. I’m worried that doing so may have an impact on the function of the sensor and subsequently the fan controller. anyone have any experience with this that could give me a definite yes or no answer? thanks!
it seems like a solid piece of wire, almost like a coat hanger, but thinner i guess.
and i dont understand, so thats why i am asking before i do anything
I would say don’t cut it. I think it may be hollow and have some kind of fluid or air in it that changes pressure as the temp changes.
it’s a thermocouple and while it looks like it is only one wire, there are two in it.
Secondly, it’s calibrated based on resistance, so cutting and soldering is a BAD idea.
thank you! i thought it was a thermocouple but the ones I am used to seeing had something a bit different coming off of them. i will prob just find some way to route it all over the engine bay as out of the way as possible to make the whole thing stick out a little less
newman is correct, it is at a preset length that determines the resistance of the circuit. If you cut it, the sensor will still function, but not properly or accurately. why do you want to stretch and move it. If anything cant you “flatten” it against that panel and hide it with some insulation or a wire loom?
i suppose…“that panel” would be the backside of the radiator. when i unpackaged the thing, it was coiled up in like a little spool. maybe i will just return it to that form and hide it by the controller.